No criminal charges will be leveled against Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information, but Republicans in Congress are still doing everything they can to make the Democratic presidential nominee feel the weight of her misconduct.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has formally urged Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to deny Clinton access to classified information during her presidential campaign. Presidential candidates are normally given security briefings once they become their party’s nominee, but Republicans -- at the advice of FBI Director James Comey -- believe she cannot be trusted with our nation’s secrets.
“There is no legal requirement for you to provide Secretary Clinton with classified information, and it would send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nation’s secrets if you choose to provide her access to this information despite the FBI’s findings,” Ryan wrote to Clapper.
Even if Republicans are successful, however, the most concerning questions remain: Why did Clinton act so carelessly in the first place, and how was she able to get away with it?
The answer to these questions and the solution to the problems they represent won’t be solved by denying Clinton her security clearance. The root of these problems lies in the attitude that our “leaders” in D.C. are better, higher, more elite than the people they purport to serve.
And only one solution has the power to truly shake federal officials to their core: an Article V Convention of States. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that strip the feds of much of their power and return it to where it belongs: the people and the states.
