Mark Levin sat down with TheBlaze last week to discuss the need for a Convention of States to preserve liberty in America. We've posted an excerpt from the interview below, and you can access the full article by subscribing to TheBlaze Magazine here.
Constitutional attorney Michael Farris gives the survival of American liberty “10 years, at the most.”
Conservative radio host, lawyer and author Mark Levin says, “America is reaching the point of no return, unraveling quickly over the last 10 years.” He’s not predicting a second American civil war between statists and constitutional individualists, but he says that he “fears what is possible down the road” if federal powers continue sucking liberty from states and individuals, unchecked by either political party.
Conservative columnist George Will joins the chorus, recently predicting, “I am quite confident that we’re going to rebel against this abusive government.”
But while there’s consensus on the threat, there is not unanimity among conservatives for triggering a constitutional amendment provision that’s never been used in the history of the United States—a convention of states.
Article V provides two ways to amend the U.S. Constitution. In one, a proposed amendment is initiated and passed by Congress, then sent to the states for ratification. All 27 current amendments followed that path.
But to counter a power-grabbing federal government, the Founders alternatively provided that a common resolution by two-thirds of the states would require Congress to call a convention where state-appointed delegates could initiate constitutional amendments.
Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum argues a convention of states could open a constitutional Pandora’s box, unleashing a “runaway,” liberal trashing of the Constitution that sacrifices more individual rights and state powers to an all-powerful central government.
But Levin believes the method the Founders’ provided for states to exercise their constitutional muscle over what he argues has become a federal leviathan is the answer to resetting unbalanced federal power.
Levin’s latest book, “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic,” lays out his case for a convention of states and proposes 11 new amendments, including congressional and Supreme Court term limits, changing the way U.S. senators are selected, debt and taxation limits, checks on bureaucracy and regulations, a method to override Supreme Court decisions, refining Congress’ Commerce Clause powers and setting national voter identification standards.
In an interview with TheBlaze, Levin acknowledged his original reticence to tinkering with America’s 225-year-old framework. But as federal power has metastasized, Levin believes the Founders supplied a solution if America is prepared for bold action to reclaim liberty.
“The Framers anticipated this day might arrive, for they knew that republics deteriorate at first from within,” Levin says in his book. “They provided a lawful and civil way to repair what has transpired. We, the people, through our state legislatures—and the state legislatures, acting collectively—have enormous power to constrain the federal government, reestablish self-government and secure individual sovereignty.”
Levin warns that states acting to reclaim individual and states’ rights will face vigorous challenges from a bloated and intractable federal ruling class.
“The Statists’ utopia and the Framers’ Constitution cannot coexist,” Levin says. “The Left will fight this approach because they get what they want with this top-down approach. They fear bottom-up government.”
Levin says the clock is ticking in a race America must not lose.
