Sunday, Mar 12, 2017 12:00 PM EDT
Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a constitutional convention? Oh, hell no
Right-wingers are tiptoeing toward calling a constitutional convention — and that could turn into an epic disaster
Paul Rosenberg
With an authoritarian bully in the White House, producing an almost daily flow of erratic threats, it can be quite a challenge to focus on other threats to the fundamental soundness of American democracy. Which is all the more reason to pay attention to them. One such threat is the prospect of a constitutional convention, called under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. In theory this provision exists as a backstop guarantor of democracy, but no such convention has been called since the 18th century. In practice, steered by conservative activists and monied special interests it could serve as a means for utterly eroding both Americans’ faith in and capacity for democratic self-governance.
Common Cause recently sent out an alert warning that Wyoming had become the 29th state to call for an Article V convention to enact a balanced budget amendment, leaving activists just five states short of reaching the constitutionally required 34-state goal. Article V dictates that a constitutional convention can be called in one of two ways: Through a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress, or by legislative majorities in two-thirds of the states. It is not just an idle threat. ... “After a number of states passed balanced budget amendment calls in the ’70s and ’80s, the movement stalled for many years,” Scott Swenson, the vice president of communications for Common Cause, told Salon. Recently the idea has once again gained “serious financial backing from a few very wealthy special interests who find democracy inconvenient,” he went on. They have used vehicles like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which Swenson described as “a group that gets corporations to launder money as dues that are deductible, to then turn and lobby state legislatures to pass model bills that give corporations more power.”
Common Cause sounded the alarm last year with a detailed report, “
The Dangerous Path: Big Money’s Plan to Shred the Constitution,” which managed to attract some attention amid the tumultuous presidential campaign. As
In These Times reported, the ALEC-affiliated
Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force (BBATF) has gained ground rapidly since it was formed in 2010: “BBATF has since passed resolutions in Alabama (2011), New Hampshire (2012), Ohio (2013), Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, Louisiana (2014), South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah (2015) and West Virginia (2016), bringing the total to 28.”
“Americans should be alarmed because those pushing for a constitutional convention are close to thrusting us into a constitutional crisis,” Swenson said, “and frankly, the chaos that currently surrounds the Trump administration has most Americans feeling off balance already.” ... Once a constitutional convention is called, all bets are off. “Regardless of why a convention is called, there is nothing to stop it from becoming a runaway convention that could ultimately overhaul the U.S. Constitution completely,” Swenson explained. “Unfortunately, the framers provided no details on how such a convention would be conducted and no brakes to stop a runaway convention. There is also no guidance on how delegates are to be chosen or even how legal disputes about the process would be settled.”
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Paul Rosenberg is a California-based writer/activist, senior editor for Random Lengths News, and a columnist for Al Jazeera English. Follow him on Twitter at @PaulHRosenberg.
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