Having seen enough overreach, corruption, lawlessness, fiscal irresponsibility, and soft tyranny from the overlords in the swamp in DC, I got involved in the Convention of States (COS) movement -- see more information here. A volunteer signup form asked if I'd read Mark Levin's bestselling book, The Liberty Amendments, 
which prompted me to do so. It was written around the same time as the founding of COS in 2013 and has been foundational to the COS movement and inspires it today.
Levin and COS advocate for the same process: To use Article V of the Constitution to propose amendments that restrain the tenure of politicians and bureaucrats in DC, their purse strings, and their scope and jurisdiction. By doing so, the balance of power returns to We the People and those who are designated to more closely represent us -- the States and our local elected officials. In other words, use the Constitution to save our constitutional Republic. It is the bedrock of the biggest and most successful experiment in self-governance the world has ever known. It has liberated us to pursue our life’s dreams and entrepreneurial visions, lifted millions out of poverty, and fostered human flourishing for two and one-half centuries.
Through a series of blog posts about this excellent and inspiring book, I hope to convey Levin's major messages and inspire others to engage in the COS project and join its underlying and growing grass-roots movement to restore liberty and self-governance. I also hope to inspire you to read this book.
Levin begins by laying out all of the current problems rooted in DC:
- Incumbency and lack of rotation which grows unchecked power
- A professional political class out of touch with We the People whom they report to
- Aspirations and avarice, and the pursuit of power, control, and money
- Increased regulation, intrusion and micromanagement of every aspect of our lives beyond the enumerated powers in the Constitution (aka lawlessness and soft tyranny)
- Complete fiscal irresponsibility demonstrated by the tip of the iceberg of growing and unsustainable debt, and hidden below the surface, the much larger and more damaging unfunded future liabilities that are bankrupting (or have already) our country
In Chapter 1 (click link to article), Levin points out the wisdom of George Mason and the framers, who gave us Article V without discussion, despite their propensity to debate everything and anything in the Constitution and about the process and protocols for framing and writing it. Simply put, the States have the right and obligation to amend the constitution when DC and the federal leviathan get too powerful and out of control. This tendency was understood about human nature throughout history and anticipated at the founding of the republic and framing of the constitution. Article V and many of the Constitution's decentralized structures and checks and balances were designed to thwart this tendency.
The eleven Liberty Amendments proposed by Levin are, and the subsequent blog posts in this series will be:
- Limit terms in Congress to 12 years, reducing the power of those elected (Chapter 2)
- Repeal the 17th amendment, restoring the election of Senators to the State legislatures and making them more accountable to the States and We the People (Chapter 3)
- Limit terms on Supreme Court justices, and allow super-majority override of their rulings by Congress or State Legislatures within two years (Chapter 4)
- Limit fiscal mismanagement, and limit taxes (Chapter 5)
- Limit the Federal government via congressional review of agencies that expire, and of regulations for laws that have over $100M in impact (Chapter 6)
- Promote free enterprise and limit government overreach into commercial activity by restoring the Commerce Clause to its intended purpose (Chapter 7)
- Clarify for all levels of government their role in securing property rights, and just compensation to owners for taking or regulating it for public use (Chapter 8)
- Bolster the spirit of Article V and the voice of We the People by giving the States an additional ability to directly amend the Constitution (Chapter 9)
- Check Congress by an amendment that gives States the ability to override federal laws (Chapter 10)
- Protect the vote and the sanctity of the voting franchise and promote equal suffrage in federal elections through registration requirements (Chapter 11)
- In the Epilog, we are admonished and encouraged to act now! What the founders predicted has come to fruition, and we need more volunteers than ever to influence their neighbors, and state legislators.
As a result of reading this article, and the others in the series, I hope you'll be inspired to join the COS movement and read this book, as well as other liberty-oriented books by Levin. He is a great writer, and a good history and civics teacher (as well as a vocabulary teacher; I consulted a dictionary often while reading this book!).
Levin delves deeply into early American history to describe the founders’ and framers’ designs. These were rooted in lessons learned from prior societies and governments and their demise at the hands of immutable human nature. Levin also presents the ensuing episodes, laws, rulings, and edicts through time that have enormously expanded the ineffective and downright harmful federal leviathan. He documents the erosion of our liberties and our constitutional republic and the path to restoration.
