Have you ever had a conversation with someone who insists upon a reality that is completely contrary to reality? Undoubtedly we’ve all had those experiences, and it's not just our spouses who are guilty. Joanna Martin, a.k.a. Publius Huldah, makes such distortions a tenet of her life’s work, especially when it comes to calling for a convention under Article V of the Constitution.
For me, the first red flag in her “arguments” against a Convention of States (COS) is her curious use of a bizarre pseudonym. Who does that nowadays unless you are just a little bit off-kilter?
Nonetheless, she has become one of the prime spokespersons by the John Birch Society (JBS), where she travels around the country on the JBS dime railing against the COS in front of groups who have already made up their mind against a convention. In one of her handouts at a meeting held in Georgia, and sponsored by a small local group of paranoiacs, a.k.a The Madison Forum, she claimed that the amendments written at a dress rehearsal of a COS held in Williamsburg, VA, in 2016 would greatly expand (emphasis mine) the power of the federal government.
For example, she claims one of the amendments would make unbridled deficit spending by Congress “constitutional.” Hmm. Let’s look at that for a second. One of the proposals is for there to be no increase in the national debt unless approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress. Special note to Huldah. Currently increases in public debt can be approved by a simple majority vote.
Or how about her claim that the COS would impose a national sales tax or value-added tax? Truth be known, neither was even mentioned in the mock convention. Instead, it would repeal the 16th Amendment imposing a federal income tax and would prohibit Congress from passing “any tax, duty, impost or excise tax” without a three-fifths vote of both the House and Senate. Hardly an expansion of federal power, but the exact opposite.
In her hysterical hyperbole over a COS, she even claims it would impose “soviet style dictatorial powers over Americans” by giving “to the fed gov’t total power over the movement or transportation of persons across state lines.” A more honest and sane reading of the amendments proposed would show that, on the contrary, the relevant COS proposal would do nothing more than to further limit and circumscribe the federal government’s control over interstate commerce; a reform that is both needed and necessary.
And here’s another “Huldahism”: The COS proposes to “legalize the regulatory administrative law state [sic] and rulemaking by federal executive agencies.” Again, the COS does nothing of the kind but actually proposes language that would restrict that power.
Or how about her bald-faced claim that “powerful moneyed interests…want a new Constitution for this country” when in the same flyer where she references the results of the work of the simulated convention, nothing of the kind took place. Instead, it came up with limited amendments that have as its only purpose to limit the size and scope of the federal government (emphasis mine). But don’t take my word for it. See for yourself.
The flyer from which I am drawing her quotes is full of all kinds of inflammatory rhetoric having no basis in fact, such as “dictatorial powers over Americans” or “insidious views." Ms. Huldah’s disconnect from logic and reality is on a par with folks you might run into at an insane asylum. Based on her utterances, such elemental logic as what is up is not down and black is not white seems to have alluded her; at least when it comes to COS.
Quite frankly, if Ms. Huldah is the best the JBS can come up with, then we have little to fear from that quarter, except for the fact that legislators looking for an alibi to vote no on a convention resolution may seek cover under an organization that claimed President Eisenhower was a Soviet agent. We can’t let that happen. We can’t let charlatans and people with a shaky grasp on reality dictate the direction of debate on the COS. The stakes are simply too high.
For more resources debunking commonly voiced misleading claims against Convention of States, see the Facts Over Fear section of our Georgia state page.
