A constitutional convention?

[Grumpy Old Guy]

This terrifies me. There is nothing preventing this from happening. They overturned Roe. They could also rewrite the Constitution.

https://www.rawstory.com/constitutional-convention-right-wing-overthrow/

"This isn't an exercise, either. State lawmakers are invited to huddle in Denver starting on Sunday to learn more about the inner workings of a possible constitutional convention at Academy of States 3.0, the third installment of a boot camp preparing state lawmakers 'in anticipation of an imminent Article V Convention,'" said the report."


"The conservatives aim to change the constitution so that it would eliminate national education requirements, making it harder for any territory to garner statehood, eliminate many federal environmental standards, and make it difficult or impossible for someone like Anthony Fauci to ever work for decades within the government."

[elleng]

1. NO NO NO NO NO!

[SoCalDavidS]

2. This Nation Is Lost

The fact this is even up for discussion, proves how completely Fucked we are.

[rampartc]

3. here is their web site

they are only a few legislators away from calling this thing to order. i say "they" because this is being organized by club for growth, americans for prosperity, alec iow koch & friends.

who will appoint delegates? state legislatures of course. voting is 1 state 1 vote. i think that if it is possible to keep this from happening we should stop it.

https://conventionofstates.com/

[3Hotdogs]

8. The web site and the people shown as supporters.... every wack job, criminal or soon to be convicted

criminal. Their photos and endorse....... Well, maybe not all. Sarah Palin's photo is not there and I still think she's kinda hot.

But the other shitbirds are all there.

[rampartc]

17. you got it, 3dogs

is that who you would choose to churn out amendments?

once gathered there is no limit on the amendments they propose and nothing to require them to adjourn. ever.

[live love laugh]

4. Meanwhile Democrats have nothing similar to train

and prepare.

This has been talked about for at least a decade that I am aware of.

You can bet your life Republicans will steal the votes to get the remaining states to make this happen.

In our lifetimes ‼️‼️‼️

[Cheezoholic]

5. Many of us have been concerned about this for years

Fortunately it takes 35 states to call for a convention, I think the repukes have control of 29 right now. Regardless that is too close for comfort. If it were to happen the repuke strategy is not just to change the Constitution but to outright re-write it. While congress can proposeand/or repeal an amendment to the Constitution with enough votes, thereby putting it out to states to ratify, a convention is much more radical to the extent the Constitution could be basically dissolved. That is very difficult, 35 states to call for one, 38 to approve any changes. The Birchers were pushing it in the 50's, Goldwater stated in the 60's it was the only way to prevent an internal communist takeover of the country. The Neo-cons in the 90's made the objective a de facto goal for the repuke party and thought they could do it in 30 years. Gerrymandering in states, amongst other vote suppression steps, are not totally meant to sway federal politics. They are meant to control state politics with this ultimate goal. They've damn near gotten away with it.

IMO, the reason the repuke party still embraces Fat Nixon to an extent is because of his influence in state and local elections. The repukes gained more state control under his administration than they had in nearly 20 years. I'm telling you, if they can get the states they will obliterate this great experiment. Jon Meacham referred to this strategy in his book American Lion.

[Hekate]

6. It's at Business Insider, link inside Raw Story article. And now I think...

… I’m going to be sick.

Gods help us all.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

7. So much for "originalism."

Every word the Founding Fathers wrote is supposedly sacred, but yet they want to rewrite the entire constitution.

So much hypocrisy!

[sinkingfeeling]

9. This must not happen or fascism wins.

[StrkSrviver]

10. No worries

Any study of the original constitutional convention shows the arguments that were going on between 13 states. Can you just imagine the chaos going on between 50. That also doesn't take into account the narcissistic personalities of conservative attendees. There's no way any of these alpha personalities willingly compromise. Every one of them wants to be the next Thomas Jefferson.

[Baked Potato]

11. Lots of money available for them to try anything.

[Martin68]

12. Don't sweat it. Amendments are really, really hard to pass. Look at the ERA.

[Hortensis]

14. I find the prospect of a convention convened to rewrite the constitution

by people determined to overthrow the original very frightening. This isn't just one attempt at a change making its way state by state but a concerted effort to purge liberal ideals in a time of a wave of far-right extremism.

It's worth nothing that some extremists on the left would vote for conservatives calling for a constitutional convention as their chance to overthrow "the system." Remember the accelerationists who've been advocating electing corrupt Republicans as a way to hurry up what they imagine would be governmental collapse? Only a few percent might but in these crazy times of narrow electoral margins could be enough to tip the balance to make it happen.

[3Hotdogs]

18. That's the point.

THEY won the ERA battle.

[Martin68]

20. You only need one-third of the states plus one to defeat the proposal. It takes two thirds to

approve an amendment.

[Martin68]

21. It's a lot easier to prevent an amendment than to pass one.

For a reason!

[rsdsharp]

13. Whatever they came up with would still have to be ratified by 3/4s of the states.

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

[slightlv]

15. My question to this would be, though,

would they abide by this? Or would they just rewrite the rules? I'm terrified by the mere prospect? And I don't believe there is a fanatical "left" that would push this at this time. I think there are a lot of centrists that have demonized progressives into something we're not. I don't count chaos agents as democrats and I don't think they vote with us (or even, for that matter, vote at all). I think they're the other end of the Steve Bannon's of the world. They're certainly not progressives! Yes, we're tired of being constantly pushed to the back of the bus. And yes, we're tired of constantly being told our issues aren't ready to be presented to the world. Just look at what happened to one our issues we've been screaming about for decades... RvW was, actually, overturned, and NOW everybody is joining us in screaming. Wish it could have been decades ago when we first began and we could have joined forces and come up with a unified plan to keep it from happening. But instead, we were told it wasn't important enough at the time. Yes... I'm one of those with some bitterness now. But I'm certainly not calling for burning it all down; and in fact, live in absolute terror of R's doing just that. And I don't see one of my compatriots calling for anything like anyone is insinuating. Whether anyone wants to believe it or not, we're all on the same team... from Biden to Schiff to Pelosi to AOC. We all vote "D". I'm doing my part tomorrow!

[rsdsharp]

16. If they "don't go along with this" then they haven't amended the Constitution.

They abide by the requirements for a Constitutional convention, spending years trying to get the required 2/3rds of the states, but then ignore the subsequent ratification requirements? That makes no sense. Not even this Supreme Court would go along with that.

[3Hotdogs]

19. The same 2/3 that call for the convention, will vote for its proposed amendments.

Why would they vote for the convention to achieve their goals and then not ratify their proposed amendments? It wouldn't make sense.

[rsdsharp]

22. The last time I looked, 2/3rds isn't 3/4ths.

It takes more states to ratify than it does to call a convention.