Comb's editorial was published in Ohio's Harrison Press mid-February, 2022.
America is at a crossroads.
Unless you’ve been stranded on a deserted island, you’ve probably noticed that our nation is bitterly divided over, well, just about everything. Where does this divisiveness come from? A friend once shared the observation that the more power the government has over our lives, the more people fight to be the group wielding that power.
The thing is our government was never intended to have such broad dominion over our lives. In my lifetime the national debt has soared from $458 billion to nearly $30 trillion, a 6,450% increase! We are awash in unfunded mandates on everything from education to transportation infrastructure to healthcare. The citizen legislator, among the noblest of ideals from the founding fathers, is a punchline to politicians who spend a lifetime beholden to special interests with little regard for the people who elected them to office. The swamp is real and it's clear that the politicians who created this mess are either incapable of or worse unwilling to clean it up.
Fortunately, the framers of the US Constitution gave us a means to reign in the federal government. It’s something we learned about in 4th grade civics class. Article V of the Constitution gives the states the ability to call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution. There is a movement afoot to call such a convention. The Convention of States movement is a grassroots organization working to promote a convention exactly as the founders intended.
So as to avoid creating a convention as dysfunctional as the very government we seek to restrain, the Convention of States movement has wisely chosen to limit the debate to just 3 crucial amendments to put us back on course:
Impose term limits – the longer a congressman/woman or senator spends in the swamp, the more beholden they are to special interests and the less likely they are to actually represent YOU. Government exists to serve the people, not the other way around.
Impose fiscal restraint – the federal government spends money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. We cannot continue to saddle our grandchildren’s grandchildren with crushing debt. It is time to require a balanced federal budget.
Limit the power of the federal government – for generations, the federal government has usurped powers that the framers intended to put in the hands of we the people through our state and local government. It’s time to take back that power.
Last fall Harrison City Council in southwest Ohio unanimously approved a resolution in support of the Convention of States to encourage the Ohio legislature to call for a convention. It takes 34 states to call such a convention. Within the last couple weeks, Wisconsin and Nebraska became the 16th and 17th states to formally issue the call (other states already on board are Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Arizona, and Alaska).
Twenty-four states including Ohio have legislation to join the call for a convention on the current year’s agenda or have already passed a resolution in at least 1 house of their legislature. Only 9 states have their heads completely buried in the sand.
What can you do? Tell your elected state officials that it is time to take back our government from those who have hijacked it for their own personal agenda. Go to their meetings. Write letters. Take a few minutes to tell your liberty-minded friends and family to go to www.ConventionOfStates.com and sign the petition. Let’s add Ohio to the list of states calling for a Convention of States!
Joe Combs is a member of the Hamilton County Libertarian Party. A twenty-year resident of Harrison, Ohio, Joe is a past city council candidate and currently sits on the Harrison Board of Zoning Appeals. He is an ardent Convention of States supporter.
