The Long March through the Legislatures

Change never happens overnight. Societies bend, waver, readjust, alter course, and remake themselves gradually, over many years, and sometimes, over many decades. Therefore, when the revolutionists of the past, including, most notably, Antonio Gramsci, sought to enact radical change, they reputedly called for a “long march through the institutions.” Today, if we seek to undo that damage — damage inflicted systematically, progressively, steadily — we must embark on a long march of our own — this time, through the state legislatures.

Unfortunately, we often hear that we do not have the time for such an approach. We want results, and we want them NOW. Our quick-paced society is interested only in microwave solutions, quick, easy, and instant.

But try talking to our Founders about that. Try talking to the men who labored for years under tyranny, making speeches, campaigning, protesting, writing papers, pamphlets, and declarations, resisting repression, and waging a war, before they finally officially secured their freedom. Try talking to John Quincy Adams, the “hellhound of abolition,” who fought for years to end slavery, facing down congressional gag orders and threats of censure to silence him, before handing that mantle down to the future Great Emancipator. Or maybe try talking to Martin Luther King and his band of civil rights campaigners who, despite King’s insistence that “NOW is the time,” nevertheless travailed for years.

Try talking to the COS grassroots.

SEE ALSO: Wilson, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad president

No one told them it would be easy. No one said it would happen overnight. Our committed supporters have been frustrated in their efforts to pass the Convention of States resolution through their respective state legislatures time and time again. And yet, each time, they pick themselves back up, regroup, and return to work. This is their long march, and after ten slow, arduous years, they’re still moving forward. They’re still making progress. And Americans everywhere are starting to notice.

Last night’s historic committee victory in Hawaii was a great example of that. A groundbreaking success, marking the second “blue” state to pass the resolution out of committee this year (the other being Massachusetts), the team was quick to clarify that “this committee win didn’t just happen.”

“We’ve been working toward this tremendous milestone for nine years,” State Director Mark White recounted. This year alone, the grassroots team in Hawaii visited legislators' offices for six weeks in a row in advance of the hearing.

“Once our resolutions were filed, our team shifted to testimony preparation and rehearsal,” White added, “while at the same time Western Region volunteers helped with CivicClick emails and TelePatriot campaigns to really put grassroots pressure on committee members who were uncommitted to voting ‘yes' for COS.”

SEE ALSO: COS resolution passes committee in Hawai'i

How many “sunshine patriots” would have dropped out in that time? How many would have lost hope? Political movements are notoriously short-lived, the victims of our restlessness, perennial busyness, and fleeting passions. Who puts nine years of work into anything these days? The COS grassroots patriots do, and after literally thousands of hours of work, they deserve to be applauded.

“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman,” Thomas Paine famously recommended. “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

And while triumph may still seem distant, the state teams are not alone in their long march. Every day, this nationwide body of patriots presses forward, one petition, legislator, and committee at a time. And one day, if they keep the faith, they will experience the same elation that Hawaii relished last night.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The erosion of the American Republic didn’t occur overnight either. And those who seek to restore America to its former glory cannot hope to expend any less effort. It takes a long march through the state legislatures — and that’s exactly what the COS grassroots are doing.