I have been a volunteer for the Convention of States Project going on nine years now, and have been coming to the Statehouse, as a volunteer, since 2015 asking for support of our cause. With very few exceptions, almost everyone I talk to agrees that the federal government is overreaching and
abusing its constitutional power. In fact, we have had two votes on the floor with overwhelming majorities: once in the House and once in the Senate.
Anywhere else in the Union our resolutions would have passed, but for some reason Kansas has put a limit on their own power by requiring a super-majority for passing anything to do with Article V of the United States Constitution.
However, the real question here is: If you have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, what reason can you have for not wanting to have this historic meeting of the States? Fear
seems to be the answer. Fear of party leadership, and/or fear of the misinformation the naysayers spread.
I have had conversations with anyone who will talk to me about the possibility of making application for an Article V convention. I don’t care what party you are in, and like I said earlier, those who think things are going fine like they are now, are the exception. For some reason, politics does get in the way, and a lot of the time, leadership tells the party how to vote.
George Washington had this to say about political parties in his farewell address on September 19, 1796: "However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
I ask everyone to rise above party politics, as Article V makes it clear that the States are the only ones who can legally affect our Constitution, and if the States don’t get involved, we will continue losing what we have and were blessed with. This movement is about the States responsibility in the preservation of our Republic.
As it is now, the Congress passes very few laws that aren’t just an excuse to spend more money, and ensure the winning of the next election, while the printer keeps cranking out more paper money. We have unelected bureaucrats continuously writing more regulations with the force of law, and there is a good chance they have their own police force to back those regulations up. If all of that isn’t bad enough, the Judicial branch of our government has reinterpreted our Constitution into something that no longer looks anything like the pocket constitution most of us swear by.
The dominating fear comes from those, with their own agenda, who spread misinformation and outright lies. They will tell you things like: using the States part of Article V will open up the constitution and we will have another runaway convention, that it can’t be controlled, we will lose our Bill of Rights, the Constitution will be thrown out, and who knows what we will end up with…
First off, history shows us, and common sense tells us, the whole runaway convention idea is based on a lie. This lie is based on our Constitutional Convention being an illegal act. We are to believe that all of these brilliant and honorable men, with the future President George Washington presiding, threw their honor away to create a new government; I don’t think so. Besides, when the convention was over on September 17, 1787, and they left to go home, after working all summer, all they had was a proposal for a new government. It had to be ratified by the States.
Article V is part of our Constitution. It is very clear about how amendments to our Constitution can be made, and states clearly that the proposed amendment, if ratified by ¾ of the States, becomes part of this Constitution. No law can come from an amendments convention; only proposals. Any possible proposal requires ratification by the States to become part of the Law of the Land.
There are those on the extremes of both sides of the political spectrum that will tell you it is going to take bloodshed to correct the wrongs of our Republic. The founders wrote our Constitution in a way to
prevent that from happening. We only have to use what they gave us.
I ask you to support Convention of States.
I close with one more quote from George Washington’s farewell address: "If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."
In Liberty,
Bob Strawder,
Grassroots Coordinator
Convention of States Kansas
