Publius Huldah is wrong again about Convention of States

The following article is by Jen Kuznicki, a Michigan resident and political commentator who has written for Conservative Review and other online publications.

At the site “Renew America” Joanna Martin, who writes under the pseudonym “Publius Huldah,” tries to connect the supremacy clause to an Article V Convention in a recent post.

Her article is directed at certain proposals in Virginia that lay out procedures in case of an Article V Convention of States application. But as usual, her utter contempt for the very wording and existence of Article V shows through.

Let’s first disregard the undue attention this woman has been afforded by the Bircher site Renew America. She is educated as a lawyer and calls herself a constitutional expert. But the Constitution isn’t some cordoned off document that only a few are allowed to interpret and understand. It’s for all of us. That is, if you can read and understand words and sentences, you can champion the Constitution and all of its parts.

One tactic Ms. Martin uses is to unnecessarily complicate the words of the Constitution and apply unrelated parts to the parts she doesn’t like, in order to relentlessly uphold the status quo.

As I mentioned, she began her piece objecting to some proposed Virginia bills, but it was not long before she once again, like clockwork, broke down the supposed unimpeachable idea that she is a constitutional expert by saying, “We’ve never had a convention under Article V – they are dangerous! If Congress calls an Article V convention, our existing Constitution could be replaced with a new Constitution which sets up a completely new structure of government.”

In response to this recurring breathless foolish statement, we should ask ourselves some questions.

First we have to ask ourselves if the states formed the federal government. Then we have to ask ourselves if the Constitution was illegally formed and should have never been ratified by the states. Then it would be smart to ask if it was illegally formed, why do people like Joanna claim to defend it? Further, we should ask if the words in Article V suggest the adoption of a new constitution, or if it simply states the methods of amending it. We have to ask ourselves these questions to get past the ridiculous rhetoric that an Article V Convention of States is dangerous, and could set up a different structure of government.

The states did, indeed, form the federal government. They did so by holding the only constitutional convention and by ratifying the Constitution.

Any argument that claims that Article V describes the way to form a new government is demonstrably false. Anyone can read and understand that Article V relates to amending.

The argument that the Constitution was illegally formed is the oldest argument against the Constitution and was snuffed out when all thirteen states ratified it. It was the losing argument then, and it is an anti-Constitutional argument now. Those who claim to be defending the Constitution while simultaneously claiming it was illegal to begin with, ought to have all of their conclusions concerning the constitutionality of any bill, law, or idea held as highly suspicious.

There is no need to address the rest of Joanna’s argument since her logical fallacies are glaring, and rely solely on her continued personal uninspired assault on the founding of this nation. Indeed, most of her articles are complicated ways to object to something written in the Constitution, with the intention to smear the founding and cause those who will not educate themselves about the world’s greatest document, to live in fear.

Proponents of an Article V Convention of States know that the founders unanimously voted to include a state method to amend the Constitution for precisely a time such as this, where our freedoms are regularly threatened by those in the federal government who refuse to limit federal power.

We, the people of the states, have the power to amend the Constitution and we seek to limit the power of the federal government through an Article V Convention of States. Congress will never do it, it’s up to us.