Phoenix Planning Convention of States – 2017
Toward an Annual Article V State Amendments Convention Part I
By Rodney Dodsworth – April 4, 2016
The Framers envisioned a free people would keep and improve their republic through Article V and not through the social justice whims of nine unaccountable lawyers. Enlightenment philosophers and our Framers recognized that whereas power is aggressive, liberty is passive, and unless actively pursued, liberty will always fade in the face of encroaching power.
Much of America has come to accept as final the often fanciful mutterings of the scotus. As illustrated in its Roe, Lawrence, and Obergefell opinions, scotus not only supplanted the supreme law of the land, it trashed the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Its June 2015 decisions alone blew the lid off what remained of limited and free government; without saying, it formalized the Progressive dream of a “living and breathing” Constitution.
But be of good cheer, for there is an escape clause. These and many other decades’ worth of outrages and assaults on free government and society do not have to stand. Scotus is supreme among courts, but is inferior to God and the people acting in their sovereign capacity. It is through the Article V state convention amendment process that We the People can exert sovereign authority above and beyond scotus to not only repeal the 17th Amendment, but its evil offspring as well, for an Article V state amendments convention can reverse every scotus decision that is inconsistent with free government.
Are only good outcomes guaranteed from the Article V process? Of course not, but no people in history ever met in convention for the purpose of enslaving themselves. Like the United States, other previously free societies ran aground on the shoals of tyranny. Some famously extricated themselves.
Over their long republic, the Romans expelled the Tarquins, created consuls, admitted plebeians to marry patricians which rendered them capable of magisterial office, divided lands won from their enemies, erected tribunes to defend the rights of the commons, appointed and then destroyed the Decemviri, created military tribunes, created dictators. As the times required, a people covetous of liberty stepped back from encroaching despotism and restored free government. They deserve our attention.
Seventeenth century Stuart England was a horrid mess of civil and religious wars, revolutions, a dictatorship, and near absolute monarchy. When James II fled to France, Parliament met in convention to deal with the crisis. The subsequent Declaration of Rights and coronation of William and Mary in 1689 returned England to the path toward free government.
The enormity of an Article V state convention, whether congressionally sanctioned or not, cannot be overstated. In the weeks leading to a convention, our nation will be consumed like never before in actual debate over the purpose of government and how far it has strayed from its designed purposes. A 21st century peaceful rising of the sovereign American people would be the equivalent of the 18th century “shot heard ‘round the world,” for it could mean the rebirth of the American tradition of free government. Not seen since the ratification debates of 1787-1788, anticipation of a state amendments convention will engender national discussion over the foundational maxims of the American republic.
There is a lot of cleaning up to do. Scotus and the administrative state deposited a fetid crust of anti-freedom, anti-constitutional diktats on a once free people. In view of the sheer volume and regularity of Leftist assaults from the executive and judicial branches, the states should meet annually in convention. Too hard? Impossible? All that is necessary is to meet once, and upon completion of the business at hand, adjourn until a specified date the next year. By never adjourning sine die, and always rescheduling, the states establish a de facto standing and regular amendments convention. America has the means at her fingertips to regularly improve her institutions, to keep them on the straight path which could lead them to perfection.
It is only through the assertion of our God-given societal right to frame our government, that scotus along with the rest of the D.C. elites will know that a legitimate power well above and beyond their control will year after year examine and if necessary, reverse any assault on free government. The Article V state amendments convention could remain a recurring, established feature of the American governing scene by resolving to meet, for instance, every year a few weeks after scotus issues its summer decisions. Knowing that the only earthly power higher than themselves will immediately look over their shoulders and judge the judges, the rampant and unhinged social justice warrior temperament of scotus will be subdued.
Avarice and ambition, man’s tendency to abuse power for personal enrichment is active in all governments at all times. By comparison, lady liberty is somnolent. If never awakened, she will eventually die in her sleep. Through Article V, the sovereign American people can regularly nudge her awake, and together they can take stock of the health and condition of free government.
Precious little time remains.
If only the will is instilled in the American constituents, the patriots and other wise people. Can we, will we and should we only time and need will tell.