STATES AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPEAR HEADED TOWARD SHOWDOWN; IS A CON-CON THE ANSWER?
by Kathleen Gotto
(Mar. 29, 2010) — America has been waiting for bold state leadership to stop the naked power grab of Barack Obama’s putative administration. Indeed, there are now 40 states with legislation pushing back federally-mandated health care, as well as at least a dozen states suing to strike down the mandate to purchase health insurance. Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, charges the Obama administration with actually “commandeering” the state legislatures for federal purposes. It is unconstitutional for the federal government to take such action. However, as we have seen with other industry takeovers by the socialists now in power, the Constitution apparently does not mean anything to them. Remember Nancy Pelosi’s answer when pressed about whether or not health care violated the Tenth Amendment? The progressive website’s article is stark. Pelosi responded incredulously, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Yes, Nancy, as you will see, we are serious. We are very serious.
The Constitution is still the law of the land, regardless of how repugnant that may be to the Obama regime. But because of our own ignorance and complacency, misplaced trust in our elected officials, and the abrogation of responsibility to uphold and defend the Constitution by the courts, Congress and President, we have temporarily lost our way. If we have anything to thank Obama for, it is that he set off the alarm and got us out of bed. We are awake now and we are furious. By and large, Americans do not suffer fools or tyrants lightly. Let there be no mistake: the fight is on.
The action being taken by the majority of states and the many lawsuits now being prepared against the vast overreaching of Obama’s administration attest to just the beginning of the battle. We are now far beyond political allegiance. The question confronting America today is not whether one is a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or other designation. The real question before us as a nation is whether or not we still have a Constitution and, if so, how far are we citizens willing to go to support and defend it? We have seen members of all three branches of the government, each of whom took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, egregiously fail to perform their duties.
Article VI deals with Debts, Supremacy and Oaths and is eminently clear. In particular, where it states, “…This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof [emphasis added] ; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;…” is striking. Only laws which are made in pursuance of the Constitution shall be the supreme law of the land. Obamacare is constitutionally dead on arrival.
There is no middle ground. We either have a Constitution or we don’t. Either we fight and defeat the forces that want to drag down this country into the morass of socialism or we surrender. It is gratifying to see that surrender is not an option for millions of us. We have arisen from our slumber. Americans from all walks of life are rising up and proclaiming, “Oh, no you don’t!” Obama has a hard lesson to learn: Our Constitution trumps Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
There have been some voices rising up from Congress, but the minority party is not being heard at all. It would be difficult to find a time in recent history when partisanship has taken on such overt ugliness. No sense of decency, statesmanship, or real concern for the American people now exists in the Democrat-run Congress, let alone the presidency, which it appears at the moment is being usurped by Obama, a constitutionally-unqualified candidate who should never have been allowed on the ballot in any state. And that is why American citizens, most of whom may have never gotten involved before, are now demonstrating, marching, and protesting for our Constitution, freedom and liberty.
Given the raw abuse of power the Obama administration is flaunting, the time may be ripe for America to exercise her Article V right to convene our republic’s second Constitutional Convention for the purpose of amending it to reverse the takeover of health care. The Constitution simply does not give the federal government authority to demand citizens buy health care, regardless of how much the socialists want to twist and contort the Commerce clause.
To stop this unconstitutional power grab, we can thank South Carolina’s Lt. Gov. André Bauer for requesting that state’s General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention to reverse government-mandated health care. Bauer called upon SC Senators Campbell and Cleary in the Senate and Representatives Frye and Scott in the House to assist in drafting the resolution. Hopefully, other states will follow suit. The states must rise up and push back hard against the greedy, overreaching and unconstitutional engulfment of states’ right by the federal government if federalism is to exist. A second Constitutional Convention could do that.
It is interesting to note that we currently have a crisis in this country that is just the opposite from that which the Founding Fathers faced. In 1786 it was recognized that the Articles of Confederation, which were adopted in 1777 , did not give enough power to the federal government, especially in the area of taxation and regulating commerce between the states. Lacking the power to tax, Congress had to look to the states for financial contributions. The states often turned down those requests. What made that so problematic for the young republic was that Congress did not have either the money to pay soldiers for their service in the Revolutionary War or to repay the foreign loans granted to support the war effort. In 1786, the United States was bankrupt. There were numerous other problems, also, such as slavery, property rights, and contract obligations.
To remedy at least some of those problems, on May 25, 1787, the first Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia. James Madison, a prominent member of the 55 delegates to the Convention, believed that by enlarging the power of the federal government, it would make it more difficult for any one interest group to become a majority and thus gain power. “Madison further aimed to block the ability of an oppressive majority from working its will against minorities by dividing power within the national government into three relatively co-equal branches, each of which would be given weapons to fight the other. Even if a majority were to capture one branch, Madison reasoned, it could only do limited harm if the other branches remained out of its domination.”
Unfortunately, over the course of time, and especially since the 2008 election, the three branches of government have blurred their boundaries to the point that now we have left-wing radicals in the Congress, executive branch, and the courts to one degree or another. That is how we got where we are today with health care. The consensus among conservatives is that Obamacare is more about a huge transfer of power to the executive branch than it is about health care. If there were any Democrat moderates who were concerned about this power grab, they got swallowed up by the left because they had no gumption, no concern for their constituents, and obviously no ability to stand up to Nancy Pelosi.
The United States now has the opposite problem from what James Madison feared. The federal government has become so invasive and pervasive in all aspects of our lives that we, like the frogs being slowly cooked to death, have not realized we are headed for the dinner table. We can, however, thank God that not only citizens are now awake and fighting for our liberties and freedom, but so are many others in state governments and at least a few in the Republican party. It remains to be seen if our judges will actually adjudicate for the upholding of our Constitution.
Lt. Gov. Bauer has exhibited the courage and grit that other politicians need to emulate if we are to get a groundswell of support for a second Constitutional Convention. However, whether this effort comes together or not, politicians all over this country will be put on notice that we have a national crisis that they will ignore only at their own peril.
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Editor’s Note: The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The Post & Email. There are arguments to be made both in favor of and against a second Constitutional Convention. If the health care bill just “passed” is unconstitutional, the states and their people should be able to declare it null and void by virtue of the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Many state legislatures are attempting to do so through recently-launched lawsuits against the legislation passed by the U.S. Congress.
The Post & Email also continues to maintain that anything signed by a usurper to the office of the presidency is automatically null and void. This includes legislation, treaties, contracts and executive orders. If and when Obama is declared a usurper and removed from office by failing to meet the requirements of Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the U.S. Constitution, everything he has signed must be nullified and a new president appointed, according to the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution.
Folks……are you kidding me? They DO NOT want a con-con……call your Congressman and ask them(i have, and he is a libtard)Rep Charlie Wilson ,dem, Ohio you can take it to the bank they are scared to death of a con-con, because they know their power would be in jepardy.Most of you that are replying to this have not researched it. Check out Dr. Kevin Gutzman on line.
This is exactly like gun control. We don’t need more gun control laws, we just need to enforce the ones already on the books. I think that the current Constitution is perfectly fine. We just need the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government to abide by it and enforce it. Changing it will have no effect if it is not going to be followed and enforced. If it gets changed, you can bet Obama and his supporters will be the ones doing the changing. That would be a disaster.
An Article 5 convention is only held to PROPOSE amendments. Any PROPOSED amendments would still have to be ratified by the states. The problem with this is that the states can only ask for a convention, it then has to be called by Congress. Which is unlikely seeing as all 50 states have already asked for one and Congress has so far refused.
OMGoodness – NO CON-CON.
Please people – see sense, we cannot afford to let the socialists remake the constitution. They WANT a CON-CON
Good God! Wait until we get Congress under our control and get Obama out of office. A Con Con is exactly what they want, because they will flood the Convention with their own delegates. The convention could easily turn against America and completely destroy the Founding documents.
If the constitution is not enforced what is the alternative? The founders allowed for this option as a back stop for a reason. The further the constitution is corroded the less likely it will become to reassert it.
What a UNMITIGATED disaster a CON-CON would be! Who in their right mind thinks there is ANYONE intelligent enough, with the understanding and life experience that our forefathers had, in the United States today?
This should NEVER be allowed to happen.
This is a tricky one, isn’t it? Perhaps the best thing that could come from this effort is publicity that things are so bad in this country it has come to even a discussion on another Constitutional Convention. It’ll be interesting to see what the bloggers think on this issue. I do agree, however, that if the Constitutiion were simply upheld, we wouldn’t be here now. But the erosion started a long time ago. In 1913 the Federal Reserve, a private banking corporation, was established. That’s a whole other subject! And then in 1933 our gold was confiscated. Where did the prez get authority to do that? And fiat money? I look at the Federal Reserve Note a whole new way now. I see it as an IOU masquerading as money. Who holds most of our debt? I believe that would be China. So, basically we are extended credit by China to buy stuff because there is no gold or silver to back our dollars. My point is simply that we have strayed so far from our Constitution, that it really is little wonder that we have legislators and judges who falsely swear and take an oath to uphold a Constitution they obviously do not believe in. And it is little wonder that fraud and duplicity allowed an ineligible man to become de facto president inspite of the fact that the Constitution mandates a de jure president.
Yes, a Con-Con is sharky waters, but it does give us the catalyst of thought to think through what all brought us to the point that a SC Lt Gov is even pursuing a second convention. It should make state and federal officials everywhere consider the “why” of it all.
The U.S. Constitution like a lot of laws in our country does not need to be changed: It needs to be ENFORCED!
Enforced! This is all we need to do, I agree 12th.
Anything new – I don’t trust.
Why are we not doing this. Can’t we take these evil people out of govt. by just enforcing
laws that allow us to do this?
Careful with this one. Once started there is no telling what would come out of a constitutional convention.
If it were to get packed by obots then they could legalize everything.
A constitutional amendment would be okay but a convention once opened everything and anything could be put on the table.
Who would appoint conventioneers? What safe guards would be in place?
More than likely political hacks would wind up as representatives and do you trust any of them?
NO! NO! NO! to a Constitutional Convention. Do you really trust that the Constitution won’t be destroyed further???
The healthcare bill is already unconstitutional. We don’t need to AMEND the Constitution. We need to follow it.
With over 34 states up in arms about the Health Control Act, it would seem like a perfect time to call for a Constitutional Convention as per Article V of the Constitution.
It is obvious to me that the federal government and judiciary are out of control as well as Congress. The way to bring them back to the control of the people is through a Convention where new restrains are put on the central government.
The federal government is never going to call for any Convention where it would have to give up power.
So now would be a perfect time for the States to rein in the federal government as soon as possible.
Opting for a con-con is merely opening Pandora’s Box – or sort of an Open Kimono for those who are trying to destroy the basis on which this country was built – the US Constitution.
Instead it would be better to REASSERT THE CONSTITUTION as the black letter law of our land and the contract between the 3 branches of government and We The People. A rewriting is not only unnecessary, but ill-advised as well.
Do you think 38 states would ratify anything close to pelosi care? Comon, folks the Con-Con is the only way.Congress has nothing to do with a Con-Con…..this is all done by and for the states. Do you really think they are using the Constitution now??? It is not tricky, it is the one thing our founders left us as a way to stop a runaway govt. Thank God!
Folks ,please ,please, listen, You must get educated I have spent the last 6 years studing this stuff. Do not let the DeceptiCons and Rinos try to Convince you this won’t work……It will! You can specify exactly what you want to do at a Con-Con If you only want to ad an amendment(say number 28) to repeal Obama care….that is what you do! And each state only gets one vote. Which state would want to be publicly humiliated for even voting to keep obama care? Read, Study and learn ,do not be afraid of a Con-Con. You should be very afraid of “not doing it”.You already know what their intentions are………they have chosen Tyranny…….not Liberty.