By Rodney Dodsworth – May 4, 2016
A common concern among Article V opponents is fear that a convention of the states to propose constitutional amendments will result in an oppressive constitution. Instead, all we need to do is enforce the constitution we have. Elect the right people to implement our written constitution and all will be well.
As logical and appealing as that approach appears to be, it ignores some horrible realities, and actually promotes our headlong dive into tyranny, for the anti-constitution, the unwritten constitution rules.
First, aside from the occasional heat politicians take from an outraged populace, our legislative, executive and judicial branches in the aggregate do not acknowledge any limitations on their power.
Second, and worst of all, the branch charged with adjudication of disputes arising under the constitution has rewritten our governing form such that instead of securing our freedoms, their constitution, the anti-constitution promotes tyranny.
The United States has two constitutions. Patriots read, study, and revere the brilliance of our Framers’ plan of government, and support like-minded politicians. Meanwhile, federal courts, when they adjudicate within any limits at all, are guided by the anti-constitution, the one they and their predecessors amended dozens of times these past eighty years.
There is no need to list all of the illegal judicial amendments that created today’s anti-constitution. Suffice to say that a counter-revolution to the American Revolution has occurred. A compact between We The People, via our states, and the government we created has gone wrong. Rather than secure our rights, the unwritten anti-constitution secures the power of our oppressors. When cases come before scotus, the starting points are previous, typically unconstitutional decisions, and not the supreme law they swore to uphold.
The executive branch has gleefully swept up powers discarded by congress. In fact, the very first clause of Article I, Section 1, the one in which a free people assigned all legislative authority therein granted to congress, has come to largely reside within the executive branch. This authority will pass on to the next president. Unless these powers are formally retrieved, ALL subsequent presidents will have Obama’s unwritten, unconstitutional and despotic powers. That is tyranny which no election alone can reverse.
When we ignore the reality of the unwritten anti-constitution that is the actual working framework of the ruling class, there is little hope for freedom’s restoration. It means we have turned a blind eye to our situation, for elections long ago stopped serving to choose who will faithfully perform their constitutional duties on our behalf. It means the ruling despots have a constitutionally free hand to aggrandize more power and wealth, to continue sapping our liberty. In order to possibly restore republican freedom, we must first come face to face with our enemy, admit the dominance of this anti-constitution and the increasing irrelevancy of the written constitution.
Only the very hard and fast provisions of the written constitution remain. Representatives still serve two years, senators six, and for the time being at least, presidents are limited to two four-year terms. Nearly every other “soft” clause that has gotten in the way of progressive goals is either gone, misapplied or turned upside down. Think commerce clause, equal protection, taxation, abortion, homosexual marriage, our Bill of Rights, Obamacare, Common Core . . .
An unwritten Frankenstein anti-constitution rules. If we are to kill this monster and return to free government, it is way past time, if time remains at all, to grasp a clause from Article V that George Mason demanded at the federal convention of 1787: the state amending authority of Article V. We must act while we still have the power to peacefully correct the mistake of the 17th Amendment, thoroughly re-federalize our government with structural amendments, and subsequently reverse the oppression that no election alone can correct.
Article V.