The ERA was Re-introduced in the Senate for Ratification Yesterday

[freshwest]

25. It passed Congress in 1972. They can't do it alone. The states defeated the ERA:

Last edited Sun May 10, 2015, 04:58 AM - Edit history (1)

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman.

In 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification.

The resolution in Congress that proposed the amendment set a ratification deadline of March 22, 1979. Through 1977, the amendment received 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications. Five states later rescinded their ratifications before the 1979 deadline, though the validity of these rescissions is disputed. In 1978, a joint resolution of Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982, but no further states ratified the amendment before the passing of the second deadline, leaving it three short of the required threshold. Several feminist organizations that dispute the validity and the permanence of the ratification deadline, along with also disputing the validity of the five rescissions, continue to work at the federal and state levels for the adoption of the ERA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment

I'm not sure why people don't know this, and I am not saying you don't. Control of Congress is very important, but state houses matter just as much. It may not even pass both houses of Congress now. In fact, it's highly doubtful.

The current rightwing plan as stated by Paul Ryan and Rand Paul is more likely than the ERA or CU amendments going anywhere.

The GOP intend to form an Article V Convention as established in the US Constitution. They only need sufficient GOP state legislatures to call for one. They have stated that is their goal in controlling state legislatures.

As of this year, the break down in the state houses by part are:

State houses controlled by a Democratic majority: 16

State houses controlled by a Republican majority: 33

http://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_composition_of_state_houses

Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification.[1]

Amendments may be adopted and sent to the states for ratification by either:

Two-thirds (supermajority) of both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States Congress;

OR

By a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (at present 34) of the states.

To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by either (as determined by Congress):

The request of legislatures of three-fourths (at present 38) of the states;

OR

State ratifying conventions in three-fourths (at present 38) of the states.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution

So the GOP is a few states short. Paul Ryan said in 2012 that they intend to repeal the 14th Amendment to eliminate Birthright Citizenship. But it also includes Due Process and Equal Treatment Under the Law. It cannot be overstated how much of current law is dependent on the 14th. The 4th Amendment has proven insufficient to protect women's and did not work for Dred Scott, due to bigotry.

It took a Civil War to get the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments ratified. There are some GOP and RWNJs who want to abolish the IRS (16th Amendment) and Women's Sufferage (19th Amendment). They have been pushing for both for 20 years, and their main allies have been various media pundits. The message has been put out in forthright manners as well as subtle ones by repetition and auxiliary means and it's been working. You can kiss degrees of income inequality arguments aside without the governmen't ability to level taxes without the IRS.

Others want to eliminate all after the 10th Amendment (the basic states' rights philosophy). The Tenthers will eliminate everyhing after that.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Additional_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

They GOP, Libertarians, Koches, et al. are close to their goal. The ERA and CU amendments feel good but they do not fit political reality. So while getting a better Congress is quite important, the work is in the states and that is where the GOP trumphs the Democrats in off year and local elections.

Time is not on our side. An Article V convention is in our future unless we diversify state legislatures with Democrats. And this is the toolbox the RWNJs are keen to use. There is no reason to believe they will do anything remotely liberal, progressive or anything else we want to happen with that power.

In fact, they've already announced their plans. Rand Paul wants to redefine citizenship as beginning at conception. He has been frustrated by Obama's constant refusal to pass his national person hood law that he has attached to every CR.

JMHO...