Recommended Reading by Thoughtful, Little-Known Writers
By Stuart MacPhail, March 2020
There are two little-known writers who keep pumping out worthy reads aimed at stimulating thought on the shortcomings of America, its government, and how to address governance problems. Unknown or not, their work is worth reading.
Frank Keeney is a retired successful businessman and founder of Act 2 Movement (a non-partisan group that seeks to take “a big picture, common sense approach” to solving dysfunction and waste in the national government). He is also a Policy Advisor for Constitutional Reform at The Heartland Institute.
During February Heartland published two essays by Keeney. The American Experiment, Revisited addresses what Keeney calls “a hopeless muddle in a Washington that appears incapable of rational governance.” He says, “It is time we acknowledged the true state of our affairs and took action to repair the republic.”
He contends, “[W]e must repair the obvious flaws in our republic and clearly demonstrate that a democracy can produce an effective, collegial government that solves problems on a sustained basis.” He advocates for state leaders to convene and address these problems. Read his essay HERE.
In a second essay entitled An Easy Choice, Keeney writes about the various governmental reform movements organized to convince state leaders to formally apply for an Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments on just one, two or three specific (limited) topics. He says, “The creation of the limited-agenda convention, which appeared to be an effective response to the fear of a runaway convention, had a severe unintended consequence: it has crippled the Article V reform movements by complicating the problem of calling a convention.”
Keeney succinctly lays out the case for reform leaders working together to urge state lawmakers to apply for an unlimited (plenary) convention. He suggests, “When calling on new states, the Reformers would not present specific reforms for approval; they would only need to convince the leaders that our dysfunctional federal government is ineffective, needs a thorough house-cleaning, and there are many serious reform proposals available to consider. Since there is widespread agreement in the country that the federal government is broken, this should not be difficult. There is no need to convince the leaders of the superiority of any single reform idea, which the limited-agenda approach requires.”
He says, “The process required to call a limited-agenda convention is daunting and gives a Reform Group little assurance of even getting to a convention. Calling an open convention is much easier, more efficient, and holds the promise of better results. An open convention is our obvious choice.” Read this essay HERE.
Rodney Dodsworth has his own posting place called the Article V Blog. He recently posted an essay entitled Article V – Assert our Sovereignty. He says Americans must “[u]se it or lose it.” Then he notes, “Article V opponents believe America is too corrupt to be trusted with a convention of the states. They believe We The People fulfilled Ben Franklin’s fears and are no longer fit for self-government, which if true, means we don’t have any business voting either. Nonsense.”
“Thanks to our collective failure to demand Article V conventions of the states when necessary,” Dodsworth concludes, “We The People slowly, over decades, relinquished our sovereign authority to SCOTUS.” Read his thoughts on Article V HERE.
Then on February 10 he posted That Precious Jewel – American Citizenship, one man’s view of the utter importance of valuing US citizenship. Read it HERE.
Most recently, Dodsworth challenged the John Birch Society on its belief that “Nothing is wrong with the Constitution as it currently exists” in a February 23 piece entitled The John Birch Society v. We the People. Read it HERE.
