The following was written by Convention of States Action President Mark Meckler and originally published on SelfGovern.com. Click here to get more news and commentary from Mark straight to your inbox!
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced this week that Denmark will lift all COVID restrictions on February 1.
“We say goodbye to the restrictions and welcome the life we knew before” the pandemic, Frederiksen said, according to the Associated Press. “As of Feb. 1, Denmark will be open.”
Denmark is one of the first countries in the world to make such a move, and they’re doing so while their European neighbors are increasing restrictions in the face of the Omicron wave.
Their decision is a national embarrassment. Not for them. For us.
The United States used to be a beacon of freedom and hope in the world. For most of our country’s history, men and women emigrated to our shores to benefit from the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: that every citizen should have the freedom to dictate his or her own future.
The Puritans fled the tyranny of the Old World to worship God in accordance with their convictions. Their beacon on a hill attracted other religious minorities, and these groups lived alongside one another without descending into Old World religious wars.
Today, the United States government is refusing to grant religious exemptions to the tyrannical vaccine mandate for the brave men and women of our armed services. These Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines hold religious convictions no less sincere than our Puritan forefathers. But they’re finding that their country no longer respects those beliefs and has rejected the values on which it was built.
In the early 20th century, wave after wave of immigrants came to America for the chance to start a better life. They’d been beaten down by poverty and oppression, and they longed for the economic freedom and opportunity that would give them a chance at a better life. Our country has never made a promise of success. But it has always promised that the government wouldn’t stand between hardworking Americans and the American dream.
Today, “two weeks to slow the spread” has turned into two years of lockdowns, mandates, and restrictions. These restrictions have decimated thousands of small businesses and destroyed the success that those business owners have worked to achieve. Even now, with vaccines and therapies in place and a much less deadly Omicron variant, some areas of the country are still effectively closed for business.
In the 1980’s, the American people elected Ronald Reagan to the White House because they could see the specter of big-government tyranny in Washington, D.C. They worried the federal government would soon grow too large and too powerful, and they knew that our fiscal path was unsustainable.
President Reagan worked to limit the size and scope of the federal government and return decision-making power where it belonged: with the American people. His administration wasn’t perfect, but it still respected the values of freedom, self-governance, and fiscal responsibility on which our nation was founded.
Today, we have a president who believes he can solve all our nation’s problems. He sees himself as a savior, and he’s willing to sacrifice everything that has made our nation great to achieve his utopic vision. He’s willing to spend our country into oblivion, far exceed the proper authority of the executive branch, and eviscerate any and all respect we once held on the world stage.
Biden’s terrible policies and personal cowardice have transformed our country from a beacon on a hill into a laughingstock. We no longer stand for freedom and self-governance. We’ve become a weak-kneed nanny state, and Denmark—of all countries!—is showing the world what freedom looks like.
I hope we can soon return our country to its former glory, but it won’t happen in Washington. We must start looking to the states, and our most powerful tool lies in Article V.
Article V allows the states to call a Convention of States. At this Convention, the states can propose constitutional amendments that limit federal power, impose fiscal restraints on Congress, and mandate term limits for federal officials.
Nebraska just became the 17th state to pass the Convention of States Resolution. It takes 34 states to call a Convention, which means we’re nearly halfway there.
We have the power to save our country from even more embarrassment, but we must act now to call a Convention of States before it’s too late.
