05/17/2017 / By JD Heyes
The Lone Star state has become the 11th state to pass a resolution calling for a Convention of States as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution, one of two ways the nation’s founding document can be amended, but some critics wonder if the effort is too little, too late to save the republic.
As reported by WorldNetDaily, the Texas House voted 94-51 to pass SJR 2, a version of the COS legislation passed by the state Senate in February. Passage of the COS resolution was a priority for Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who endorsed the idea in January 2016. He declared passage of the amendment an emergency in his January 2017 State of the State Address.
Analysts monitoring the effort believe that Missouri will become the next state to pass a COS convention resolution, WND noted.
The Convention of States effort was launched nationwide in 2013 following the publication of “The Liberty Amendments” by former Reagan Justice Department official, constitutional scholar and talk radio giant Mark Levin. The book suggests 11 new amendments to the Constitution that, if ratified by three-quarters of states (38), would devolve power away from Washington and back to states themselves, as our founders envisioned. (Related: Read This Leading Presidential Contender Is Now Supporting A Convention Of The States.)
Article V provides two methods for amending the Constitution:
— Congress passes a constitutional amendment and sends it to states for ratification or rejection, needing three-quarters of them to approve before it is adopted;
— Two-thirds of states petition Congress for a Convention of States for the purpose of proposing new constitutional amendments, which – if passed out of the convention – must also be ratified by three-quarters of states to be adopted.
Levin, has said often the COS is the only way Americans, via their state legislatures, can take power away from the swamp that is Washington, D.C. Elections, he says, do not seem to matter.
Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has made similar observations. As he wrote on May 2 following the passage of a horrible spending bill that did not include a single priority of President Donald J. Trump:
It’s now abundantly clear that centralized big government is broken beyond repair. The system cannot be saved, not even when we elect outsiders who share our desire to fix the system. The swamp is all-consuming, deeply corrupted and swirling with vile actors (like John McCain) who are lifelong statists, steeped in the belief that a large, powerful, corrupt government should appease the powerful corporations and lobbyists while betraying the People.
The thing is, the founders knew and understood that someday an elected Congress and president could usurp so much power from the states that it would become virtually impossible for the people to reclaim it. That’s why they included the Convention of States provision in Article V; they knew that states had to retain some ability to amend the Constitution so they could retake power that had been stolen from them without any interference from Congress. According to Article V, once two-thirds of states petition the Legislative Branch for a COS, it must be granted; Congress has no choice. And any constitutional amendments that come out of a COS and are subsequently ratified by enough states automatically become part of the Constitution. Congress has no say whatsoever.
For his part, Levin says this rising COS movement is going to be the biggest story of 2017 and beyond.
“I am telling you, as we get closer to 20, this will be the biggest issue in front of you,” Levin said recently on his radio program. “The left will go crazy. They’ve already started. Their organizations are getting ramped up. Some of the conservative think tanks will start to attack as well. The Washington politicians will go nuts. The media will go nuts.”
He’s 100 percent correct. The Convention of States organization reported that already more than 200 Left-wing groups are mobilizing to oppose the convention – which means that, once again, the Left is mobilizing to oppose allowing Americans to get back more of their lost liberties and freedoms. Once again, the Left is playing the role of the authoritarian big-government cheerleader. (Related: Read The BAD Logic Behind BIG Government.)
Critics of the COS process claim – wrongly – that a COS will become a “runaway convention.” But as Abbott and Levin have both noted, that’s impossible because states themselves would agree on an agenda before a convention was ever convened. Besides, if someone at the convention would propose repealing parts of the First Amendment or the entire Second Amendment, as has been often suggested, it is folly to believe that 38 states would ratify it.
With elections proving to be less and less effective at stopping the usurpation of power by Washington and its never-ending encroachment on states rights, the only way to save the republic without bloodshed or secession is a COS.
Find similar stories at Collapse.news.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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Tagged Under: Article V, Congress, constitutional amendments, Convention of States, Texas