Leo Linbeck #33

I too am not a lawyer. Maybe some of our lawyer colleagues at BC can help.

As I understand it, even though two-thirds of the states can require that Congress call a Constitutional Convention, the states cannot impose an agenda (base-closing model) or any limits on the product of that Convention. The only limit on such a Convention is that three-fourths of the states fail to ratify the changes. And we are agreed that, as conservatives, we want to preserve the greater part of the Constitution, which is the best ever written.

The only other method is to compel the federal government, through the Congress, to do something that those with power rarely agree to do–give up some of that power. As King George III recognized, there are few George Washingtons.

Certainly some powers have moved from the states to the federal government because a complex world requires it. But many powers have moved because those in power want more power. Greed for power may be harder to satisfy than greed for money. So how to get Congress to implement the second possibility in Article V?

Members of Congress have become less and less beholden to their state’s political parties or legislatures. They may often want to keep the power the states would like to have back. I do not know of a way in which the states can compel Congress to propose for ratification by the states any amendments or a package of amendments.

Perhaps a solution is for the states’ legislatures to become politically effective enough to persuade their citizens to elect a different kind of Representative or Senator, one who would look to the welfare of the states, not by providing pork and earmarks but by returning certain powers to the states.

Jim