One of the most dangerous movements happening in the United States today is also one of the most under-reported, and that is the drive for an Article V Constitutional Convention.
How dangerous is it?
“The most dangerous threat to our democracy that most Americans have never heard of.” -Karen Hobert Flynn, former president of Common Cause
“This is intended to reverse 115 years of progressivism.” -Mark Meckler,
president of the Convention of States Project
“The convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.” -Warren Burger,
chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969-1986)
“I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it?” -Antonin Scalia, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1986-2016)
And why would a constitutional convention be so dangerous?
Common Cause lists four big reasons: 1) It would be an untested and therefore risky process. 2) Wealthy special interests would likely have the biggest say and delegates would be unaccountable to voters. 3)The American people would not be equally represented in a convention. 4) it would be a walk into the dark. There are no rules or guidelines for a constitutional convention, so there would be nothing to stop delegates from shredding our First Amendment protections, gut environmental regulations, and roll back civil rights advances.
The question of who would favor such a thing hardly needs to be asked. The neo-Nazi far-right, of course. Secretive, wealthy, special interest groups that spend big and wield their influence quietly with state lawmakers are leading the way by demanding state legislators vote to call a convention. They act as quietly as possible because they want to get this done before the public notices what is happening.
And they’re doing such a good job of it that they only need six more states to sign on and there goes the U.S. Article V of the Constitution requires Congress to convene a constitutional convention if two-thirds of state legislatures call for one. That would be 34 states, and so far 28 have called for one. Only six more, and the legacy press is barely covering it.
The far-right forces are working hard to get those six states signed on. One of the movement’s main leaders is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization composed of conservative state legislators and private representatives, most of whom are wealthy.
To give you an idea of how far-right ALEC is, it normally focuses on drafting and sharing model legislation that state legislators can customize and introduce into their own state legislatures. Common Cause tracked those bills and found they are designed to do such things as reduce businesses regulations, cut corporate taxes, loosen environmental regulations, tighten voter identification rules, weaken labor unions and oppose gun control, among other things.
And now ALEC is using its influence to get those other six states onboard.
At ALEC’s July 2022 policy summit, Insider reported on a political commentator who said that momentum is gaining for a constitutional convention, and if it were to happen the U.S. will become the “conservative nation” ALEC has been working for.
Anti-convention forces are not going down easily. More than 240 public interest and civil rights organizations are opposing calls for a convention. Oddly, in 2012, the Republican National Convention went on record as opposing one, and the decision has never been recalled.
The question is, what can I, as just one person, do about it?
One answer is to realize this is a movement that operates on the state level, so calling or at least emailing your state’s senators and representatives will have more effect than calling your federal officers, and you’ll often get a personal reply.
Call them and let them know how you feel. If you live in a state that has not signed on for a convention, tell them to oppose it. If you live in a state that already has signed on (such as my state, South Carolina), demand that they repeal that choice, and explain why.
Read to them Common Cause’s four reasons for not wanting a convention and ask them why they would support any of them. Quote Justice Scalia’s comments to them and ask them why they would want to risk their nation like that. Why would they want to allow a self-appointed group of mostly rich people to make major changes to our Constitution without allowing We the People to have a voice? Why would they do that to themselves or to us?
It may not seem like much, but if each of us were to make that call or send that email it would have an effect, especially on a state level. One person may only be a cog in the wheel, but without cogs the wheel won’t turn.
It’s like one of my favorite sayings, and I wish I knew who said it: If all you have to throw is a handful of dirt, throw it. And if you don’t have a handful of dirt, clean what dirt there is from under your fingernails and throw that. But do something. Everything counts. Nothing is too small.
Two, five,10 years from now you will be asked what you did during the resistance. What will you answer?
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