ABOUT
Convention of States Action is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded for the purpose of stopping the runaway power of the federal government. Convention of States Michigan is one of the 50 volunteer teams that together with a national support team makes up COS Action.
COS MISSION
To Build an Engaged Army of Self-Governing Grassroots Activists.
COS GOAL
To hold a meeting of the States, a Convention of States, according to Article V of the United States Constitution to:
1) Propose federal term limits.
2) Impose fiscal restraints.
3) Reduce the Size and Jurisdiction of the federal government.
For the purpose of returning power to the states and reining in the federal government.
ASPIRATIONAL GOAL
To inspire a spiritual and political awakening in America.
CORE VALUES
Our values define our culture, and we’re confident you will find our 6 Core Values consistent with the principles that built the framework of our nation and have led to its success. United we stand and divided we fall. We can do anything together.
Show / Hide 6 Core Values
Preserve Constitutional Originalism:
We adhere to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers as expressed in our governing documents, and to the original meaning of their language. We actively work to restore limited, constitutional government, federalism, individual rights, and America as the beacon of freedom to the World.
Foster Responsible Self-Governance:
True liberty requires personal responsibility and individual accountability. As we work toward a culture of self-governance in our country, we promote a culture in our organization that empowers everyone to take action, learn from their mistakes, and adjust their actions accordingly for the future.
Cultivate Servant Leaders:
Servant leadership inspires employees and volunteers to serve others and make a positive difference in their communities. We promote these principles through training and mentorship opportunities.
Be Kind:
We believe in the Golden Rule; we treat others the way we want to be treated. We seek to have positive interactions with others while being professional, respectful, and speaking the truth boldly and with love.
Produce Meaningful Results:
We aspire to produce a demonstrable impact on the restoration of America to its divinely inspired ideals, and the emboldening of people around the world to work for their own inalienable right to freedom.
Revere Judeo-Christian Values:
Our Republic was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, including that every individual is created in God’s image and endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights. It is the duty of the government of, by, and for the People to secure those rights.
BEYOND ARTICLE V:
FREEDOM, FEDERALISM, & FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (F3)
Calling an Article V Convention is a primary goal for our organization but once we have accomplished that goal in Michigan our COS supporters and volunteers will turn their attention to other areas where freedom, federalism and fundamental rights are in need of protection and/or restoration in Michigan.
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Freedom - Proposed legislation or ordinances that infringe on our freedoms as outlined in the U.S. Bill of Rights or the Michigan Constitution.
Federalism - Proposed legislation or ordinances that subvert the definition of Federalism, including State and County governments.
Fundamental Rights - Proposed legislation or ordinances that infringe on our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
HISTORY OF COS ACTION
On February 19, 2009, CNBC Business News editor Rick Santelli went ballistic during a live TV broadcast from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He ranted that it was un-American for the Federal government to reward people for doing the wrong thing, to bail out people who made bad financial decisions, and to expect honest, hard-working, tax-paying people to pay for the mistakes of others.
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This happened only six days after a massive stimulus package had been jammed through Congress. That package included the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan providing aid to (bailing out) homeowners delinquent on their mortgages. Santelli fumed, “We’re thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July.”
Mark Meckler, an attorney and business executive working from home that morning, saw the Santelli rant on CNBC and thought “yeah, that’s what I think,” but he didn’t know what to do about it.
After making calls to friends and colleagues asking their opinion of the rant, Meckler and his family began promoting the idea of a Tea Party protest in Sacramento California on February 27, 2009. To his surprise, about 150 people participated and Meckler began planning further protests, which led him to contact other activists in the burgeoning Tea Party movement. Meckler co-founded the Tea Party Patriots organization in March 2009, and it became one of the largest in the Tea Party movement.
Over the next eighteen months, hundreds of Tea Party protests occurred across the country with millions of participants leading to an unprecedented result. In the 2010 mid-term elections, sixty-three U.S. House seats, twenty state legislative chambers, and six governor’s offices flipped. A tremendous success for the Tea Party efforts. There was great excitement and anticipation as the new government was sworn into office in January of 2011.
And then, nothing happened.
It was a major blow to Meckler and others yearning for real change in Washington. Out of frustration, Meckler founded the organization Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) to "focus on broadening the philosophical reach of the idea of 'self-governance' outside of the Tea Party movement".
Soon after that, a mutual friend arranged a phone call to Mark Meckler from Mike Farris, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, and founding president of both the Home School Legal Defense Association (1983) and Patrick Henry College (2000). Farris has extensive experience as an effective litigator, educator, public advocate, and communicator, and is widely recognized for his successful work on both the national and international stage.
Farris understood the substantial disparity between the US Constitution as originally written and the 2,800-page "annotated” version (modified over the years by various amendments and Supreme Court decisions) which the federal government follows in conducting its day-to-day business.
Farris asked what Meckler had accomplished in politics so far. Meckler said he had done what he thought the Tea Party was supposed to do by supporting and electing candidates that were allegedly going to stand for what Meckler and the Tea Party believed in. But when those candidates got to Washington, they did pretty much nothing.
Nothing changed.
When Meckler expressed his frustration, Farris said it was because the Tea Party addressed the wrong problem. What you are trying to solve is a personnel problem versus a structural problem. We don’t have a personnel problem. The founders built a system that was intended to accommodate good people and bad people, virtuous people, and not-so-virtuous people, but it wasn’t intended to have its structure dramatically altered. Over the last 115 years, we’ve had a lot of structural alterations, some of which have done fundamental damage to the balance of government of the United States of America. We removed many of the checks and balances intended to keep the federal government within its bounds as set forth in the original Constitution.
Farris further explained there was a little-known clause in the second half of Article V of the Constitution that gives the citizens power to call a Convention of States. Mike Farris had a vision for how to use Article V, and he understood the necessity of having a grassroots plan to accomplish that vision. Farris told Meckler “We need to build an army of engaged citizens, we need over 4,000 bottom-up district captains in legislative districts around the country, and we need at least 100 activists in each of those legislative districts, and those people have to be willing to call their legislator, email their legislator, and a significant portion of them need to be willing to go to the capitol to lobby the state legislators to call a Convention of States”.
That plan made sense to Meckler who felt that plan could be achieved and accomplished.
Mike Farris and Mark Meckler co-founded the Convention of States Project in August of 2013.
At the same time Mark Levin was writing a book called The Liberty Amendments about Article V and calling a convention to restrain the scope, power, and jurisdiction of the federal government. Levin had no idea that Meckler and Farris were starting the Convention of States Project. Meckler and Farris were unaware that Levin was writing a book about Article V. People thought the two actions had been planned together but that was not the case.
It was Providence, not planning.
The Convention of States Project stemmed from several independent actions taken by unrelated individuals who unknowingly shared a common concern; that the Federal government was out of control and needed to be restrained. It was Providence in action.
Positive results soon poured in. The first to adopt a Convention of States application was the State of Georgia in March of 2014 followed by Alaska and Florida in April of that same year. Five more States adopted the COS application over the next two years, bringing the total to nine States by mid-2016.
In September 2016, Citizens for Self-Governance (the parent organization of The Convention of States Project) hosted a simulated Article V Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution in Williamsburg, Virginia. The purpose of the simulation was proof of concept, demonstrating that the Article V convention process is safe, that the COS Caucus model rules work well, and that the process would be an effective way to curb federal power. The event unfolded flawlessly.
Grassroots activist support has been organized in all 50 states and to date, the legislatures in a total of nineteen States have adopted the Convention of States application. Nineteen more States are actively considering the COS Resolution in 2024.
This country was created by people escaping persecution and oppression by religious organizations, tyrannical monarchs, and oppressive governments. Separated by an ocean and weeks of travel from the supposed ruling governments, self-governance was essential for the survival of the budding American nation in the mid-seventeenth century.
Now some four hundred years later, the principles of self-governance must again be applied to restrain an out-of-touch, tyrannical government, only this time, it’s our government in Washington DC.
COS Action has the solution -- the solution that’s big enough for the problem.
Watch:
COS Co-Founders Share How Convention of States Began.
Michael Farris: Why He Co-Founded Convention of States Project.