Miscellaneous

We’re up in the Idaho Senate this morning, and it’s too close to call.  Northern Idaho and western Montana are the strongholds of the John Birch Society, and the vote today is a contest between their paranoia and the promise of reform through Article V.  Loren Enns is on hand, and I suspect Greg Casey as well.  We’re counting on the leadership of Senate President Brent Hill, backed by Senators Hagedorn, Lakey, Rice, Anthon, Siddoway and Lodge.

If the vote was purely on the merits we would win easily, but Idaho Senators, like politicians everywhere, are susceptible to public pressure, and the Birchers are pulling out all the stops.  I doubt there’s anywhere in the country where the sentiment against the federal government runs as high as in northern Idaho.  This is the scene of the Ruby Ridge massacre, where the family of Randy Weaver was besieged by rogue federal agents.  His 14 year old son was killed, and his wife, Vicki, murdered  by a federal sniper.  It hasn’t been forgotten, and shouldn’t be.

A few years ago Babbie and I toured the Panhandle, staying at a lodge on Priest Lake.   I felt right at home.  These are my kind of people  — libertarians.  If only they could see that Article V is not a threat to our liberty.  It’s a weapon in its defense..

A nation’s culture is formed by its founders, and in our case we had two of them, one at Jamestown in 1607, the other at Plymouth in 1619.  A generation after the first settlers arrived, their ancestors back in England fought a Civil War in 1642, just as their descendants did in the American Civil War of 1861.

Virginians were descended of the Cavaliers, or Tories, and the Massachusetts men were the children of Roundheads, or Puritans.   Our Civil War was fought between them, North and South.  The political evolution, in the United States, of the Cavalier has been into a libertarian.  The Roundheads are today’s progressives.

The Constitution is a libertarian political document, proposed, largely written, and inspired by Virginians, the libertarian descendants of the Cavaliers.  It has been under sustained assault by the Progressives for over a hundred years, and it is now a shadow if its former self.

The assault has been withstood, barely.  But now the tide has turned, violently.  Trump is the kind of political freak that could only achieve power in a rip tide of reaction to the ridiculous excesses of Progressivism.  Can that rip tide also restore the Constitution?  Can the Amendment power reestablish federalism?

We shall see, in the next couple years.  The strong and steady ally of the BBA Task Force, the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, as we affectionately call it, has struck again, in the person of their man in Texas, Will Newton.  Apprised of the skulduggery at the Capitol, he successfully intervened, and we are no longer in danger of rescission.  Thank you, Will, and thank you, NFIB.

There are ins and outs of politics  — the inside game, and the outside.  The outside comes from the voters  — public pressure.  With millions of dollars at its disposal, the Convention of States (CoS) has succeeded in mobilizing the grass roots around the country, and is able to generate phone calls, emails, and attendance at legislative hearings.  These are Tea Party people, committed to the use of Article V to repair our broken system of government.

In fact, CoS itself is a bottoms up, grass roots political movement.  Over three years ago Lew Uhler invited CoS founder Mark Meckler to his office in Roseville so I could meet him.  Meckler lives in the Gold Country of California, about 100 miles north of me, so when he showed up wearing a big black cowboy hat, it gave me pause.   At least he wasn’t wearing one of those big silver belt buckles.

He explained why CoS has three sections:  a BBA, term limits, and a reduction in the power and scope of the federal government.  He went around the country, talking to the grass roots, and this is what they said they wanted.  By selecting these three subjects, he knew he would excite the grass roots, motivate them to pressure State Legislators around the country.

And pressure them they have, just this year in South Dakota, and Arkansas, and Utah, and Wyoming, and Arizona, and Idaho.  They lost them all.  They couldn’t play the inside game  — persuading Legislators of the wisdom of your approach.  Because, by definition, the grass roots are political amateurs, they don’t understand what is politically feasible.  Meckler, himself, is an amateur, never having served in public office.  Before proceeding with CoS, he should have talked to a pro.  But, on the other hand,  he had made a very good living the last few years.

Task Force Special Agent Loren Enns has learned the inside game, and he’s learned it very well.  He put 10,000 miles on his rental car in 2016, criss-crossing the State of Wyoming, speaking directly to Legislators in their far flung home towns.  He didn’t attempt to pressure them, he reasoned with them, and they have responded, with a 20-10 vote in the Wyoming Senate today, and Wyoming, at last, is our 29th State.  Loren’s been hanging around Cheyenne for three weeks, and he has exhausted its attractions.  On to Idaho for a relatively young man who has acquired a valuable political skill.  I’m confident that once the Task Force has concluded its work, Agent Enns will be able to put his newfound skills to work.

Two and a half years ago I called up freshman Rep. Tyler Lindholm of Sundance, Wyoming about introducing our Resolution.  I called on a Sunday afternoon, not knowing that you don’t make political calls in Wyoming on Sundays.  Tyler didn’t mind, and we had an excellent discussion of Article V and the BBA.  Tyler was one of eight Wyoming Legislative candidates who had signed a pledge card to support our Resolution.  As it turned out, he was our original sponsor.  And he, along with his sidekick Rep. Dan Laursen, get to take a big bow today.  Former Speaker Bill McIlvain, along with his nephew, State Senator Kevin Lundberg of northern Colorado, also helped out.  Bill introduced me to current Senate President Eli Bebout, a man I greatly admire, and who made sure it got through the Senate, with the strong support of Sens. Jeff Wasserburger and Cale Case..

When I first met Tyler at the Capitol he was wearing a big white cowboy hat, which was fine, except he’s six feet seven inches tall, as skinny as a rail, and it was all a little too much.  It turned out Tyler was a great guy and a strong patriot.

I was sitting with Tyler and Dan in the audience of the Senate Rules Committee in 2015, waiting for the Committee to convene, and our Resolution to be voted out.  It was all supposed to be greased by then Majority Leader Bebout, but I wanted to be there, just in case.  Tyler told me there were a couple guys from Gun Owners of America who were there to oppose the bill.  I found out who they were and so I went over and asked them what the hell they were doing there.  The BBA didn’t have a damn thing to do with the Second Amendment, and so on, and so forth.  I got a little hot under the collar, and I think Tyler and Dan got a kick out of it.

I’m off to the woods, to hoist one to Tyler, Dan, and Special Agent Enns.

 

 

In drafting Article V, as with all of the Constitution, the Framers were succinct.  Their plain words were clearly understood at the time.  But the practice of politics and government has so devolved, or degenerated, that what was plain as day in 1787 seems incomplete.  How would an Article V Amendment Convention actually work?  Opponents of a BBA pretend it’s unknowable in advance.  This is hogwash.

The Legislature of Tennessee intends to prove that proposition this summer, at an Article V BBA Planning Convention on 7-11-17 in Nashville.  This planning convention is a Convention of States, at one time a commonplace in this country.  If you want to see what an actual Amendment Convention, called by Congress, would look like, go to Nashville.

The first of a series of such Conventions of States began at Albany in 1754.  Benjamin Franklin put forward a plan for uniting the colonies, but it was premature, and rejected by the Crown.  The next Convention was in Philadelphia in 1774, and called itself the First Continental Congress.  Before it could conduct its business, one procedural conflict had to be resolved.  How would the voting be conducted, by State, or by population, or some combination of the two?  The small states insisted on one state, one vote, and their view prevailed when Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, a large State, took their side.  Every Continental Congress, every meeting of the Congress of the Articles of Confederation, and every Convention of States has followed this rule.  If this rule had not been adopted at the First Continental Congress, the small States would have walked out.  At any future Convention of States, the small states would do exactly as they did in 1774  — if it’s not one state, one vote, we’re leaving.  There are more small States than large, so it always works.

And yet the opponents of a BBA say no one knows how voting would be conducted at an Amendment Convention.  That’s false.  The men and women who will attend these Conventions will abide by their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and they will be guided by the prudent precedents set by our forebears.

BBA opponents say that the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 was a runaway Convention.  False.  Before the Convention submitted the Constitution for ratification by the States, it requested and obtained the consent of the Congress of the Articles of Confederation.  If it was a runaway Convention, why did Congress agree to submit it to the States for ratification?   It hadn’t runaway.  It had done exactly what most people knew it was going to do  — make a proposal to start over..

We have two types of opponents.  Common Cause doesn’t care about Article V.  They just don’t want a BBA.  And the Birchers don’t care about a BBA.  They just don’t want Article V.   It’s paranoia, pure and simple.  There are evil people plotting everywhere.  It’s difficult to reason with these people.  Our best hope is Nashville.  Because the people at Nashville will be the same people who will be at the subsequent, Amendment Convention, everyone will be able to see with their own eyes who, exactly, are these people?  Can they be trusted?

Those are some of the questions that will be answered in Nashville.

The new world order of globalism is dead.  Now, it’s Back to Blood, just as Tom Wolfe foresaw in his 2012 novel.  The old world order, based on national self interest, is back.  First Brexit, then Trump, and on it will go.  The center won’t hold.

Nationalism was discredited in WW I, and became anathema after “Nazi” somehow became identified with “nationalism”.  Globalism was invented as an alternative to nationalism.  The ultimate goal of globalism is border free, with all of us citizens of the world.  It was a fantasy, and reality is starting to sink in.

Everyone deplores the phrase “America First”, but no one argues with it.  Unless, of course, you don’t like this country, in which case it’s offensive.  But the vast majority of Americans are fond of their country, and the idea that we would pursue our own self interest doesn’t seem odd at all.  It’s normal.  If you’re not for yourself, who will be?

The First World war was a hundred light years ago.  The crazy military nationalism of a century ago is, today, an anachronism.  If Hitler showed up in Germany today he’d be a national joke.  Does anybody really think those German kids today could be ordered to invade France?   The world has changed, and we’re stuck in the 20th century.

NATO was formed to keep the Germans down, the Russians out, and the Americans in.  The Germans don’t need to be kept down anymore, and it’s up to them to keep the Russians out, and we’re no longer willing to be in.  I think those are facts of life, and eventually the generals and arm chair generals are going to have to face them.  They may be willing to fight the Russians, but they’re Chiefs, and the Indians won’t follow.  Not this time.

If you’re a red blooded American nationalist, you want a Navy that rules the waves, all of them, in every ocean of the world, in concert with our allies.  It’s in our national self interest, in spades.  So Trump is going to get himself a whole lot of brand new ships, and they will cost a fortune.  Add in tax cuts, infrastructure, rising interest costs on the national debt, and a refusal to curb entitlements, and you’ve got one hell of a deficit.

I think we’ll get that 3-4% growth that we need, and we can stop these deficits fairly soon.  But for the first two or three years of the Trump administration, I’m looking for massive deficits.  Huge.  Trump will say he’s priming the pump, and Congress can always be talked into spending money.

There’s a good chance, unfortunately, that we may not get to 34 this year.  In which case, we’ll be back at it in January of 2018, for the final push.  After a year of Trump deficits, and no end in sight, selling the BBA may be a little easier.