Our Republic... Can We Keep It?

In another forum, the question was raised whether it would be a good idea to convene a Convention of States under Article V of the Constitution to propose constitutional amendments Congress would not choose to propose legislatively. (On this subject it is important to remember that, whether proposed by Congress or a Convention of States, any constitutional amendment requires three-quarters of the states - 38 states - to be ratified - a very high hurdle.)

I was asked for examples of such possible Article V amendments. Two immediately came to mind - term limits and controls on monetary and fiscal policy - both areas in which, it seems to me, changes need to be made at the constitutional level - changes politicians in Congress would never agree to make. (There are a number of other possible amendments worth considering - Mark Levin wrote an entire book on the subject - “The Liberty Amendments”.)

One forum participant - I’ll call him Fred - responded as follows:

“Both of those [term limits and monetary/fiscal controls] can be accomplished at the Federal level in Congress with the right legislators.  Also at the state level.  Don’t screw around with the US Constitution!”"

Here below is my response to Fred.

Pipe dream, Fred. Naive. 

Of course, "both of those" - term limits and monetary/fiscal controls - could be accomplished in government without changes to the Constitution IF government was populated with rational, enlightened, honorable, patriotic people seeking the good of the country. We have no such government, and, sadly, there is little prospect that we will have in the foreseeable future.

What are the chances that politicians, of their own accord, whatever their partisan stripe, will agree to limit their term of service and cease to seek lifelong power, fame and fortune in politics at the expense of the people? What are the odds that they, spendthrifts that they are, will, of their own accord, impose the sort of fiscal and monetary discipline that might spare the country the sort of economic Armageddon that now looms on the horizon? 

Zippo, folks. Get real.

As we have seen, these people in Congress, with few exceptions, are self-serving, power-hungry bloodsuckers with no prospect of reformation. Notwithstanding their having brought the country to the very brink of disaster, they will never willingly control themselves or, for the sake of an abstract idea like individual human liberty, freely choose to limit their own power.  If they are to be controlled at all, it will be by means of people-power - the people's constitutional right, via their state governments, to amend the Constitution as needed to limit out-of-control federal power. 

Considering your admonition, Fred, that we shouldn't "screw around with the US Constitution", let me ask you, why do you suppose the Framers - brilliant, God-fearing men that they were - included in the Constitution not one but two ways to amend it - one through Congress, and the other through direct action by the states - Article V?  If they considered the Constitution sacrosanct - something we “shouldn’t screw around with” - why include any means to amend it at all? Obviously, they did not consider the document forever immutable and did understand that circumstances might well arise, as they soon did, that would require amendments. Without that process we would not have the critical Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments. 

As for the inclusion of Article V, it is obvious - and well documented - what the Framers intended.  They foresaw the possibility of a runaway federal government - you know, something along the lines of the outrage now being perpetrated against the people by the illegitimate regime currently ensconced in Washington - a government that would never choose to reform itself - and believed the states had to be the ultimate check on such excessive, destructive federal power. Hence Article V. 

There can be, in my view, no rational argument that the current federal government is not massively out of control, is not working against the best interests of the people, and needs to be controlled in various ways at a fundamental level. Again, supposing that this government - these people - will somehow choose to limit their own power and will by legislative measures agree to curtail their own prerogatives in the interests of abstracts like "the people" or "liberty", is not only a pipe dream but a pathetic one. That simply isn't going to happen. 

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

 - James Madison

If, then, the problem of out-of-control government undeniably does exist, the question becomes how might the people best address it? If the government will not reform itself through the legislative means provided, what remains? Shall the people place all their hope in the gossamer possibility that they might succeed in electing a sufficient number of decent, honorable, patriotic publics servants who will turn things around? Again, another pipe dream, it seems to me. And even if that should happen to some degree in one election, what happens in the next election, and the next? Clearly, the changes need to be made at the constitutional level where they are not susceptible to being blown away by the changing political winds.

Accordingly, logic, in my view, brings us to only two realistic alternatives - one, because we have no confidence in our collective intellectual, moral and spiritual abilities, we timorously agree to live with the status quo that is spiraling rapidly downward - a suicidal course as I see it - or, two, we seek to change things fundamentally, constitutionally, via the means our brilliant Founders provided us. The former course is without hope, the latter provides a glimmer.

Of course, what this all really does come down to is a fundamental question and test of the collective intellectual, moral and spiritual quality of the people.  Whether by the Congress or by the States via Article V, doing the right thing for America - the intellectual, moral and spiritual Great Experiment set in motion by our inspired Founders - the precious Shining City on a Hill - the light of human liberty shining out into the whole world - will require, collectively, as John Adams observed, "a religious and moral people". Our Constitution and our constitutional form of government is, as he noted, "wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  

In our Constitution, the Founders gave us the tools - including Article V - to preserve and protect our liberty and prosperity in a changing world. The necessary mechanisms for that protection are constitutionally in place, but they must be, can only be accessed and driven by the collective virtues of the people. Sadly, it may be that there is insufficient intellectual, moral and spiritual grit left in the people collectively to access the available constitutional controls and to get the job done. 

The story goes that Ben Franklin, following the Constitutional Convention, was approached by a woman who asked, “Well, Dr. Franklin, what have you given us?” His response: “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Can we keep it? Will we?

Hoping that we, in the absence of collective intellectual, moral and spiritual virtue, can right the badly listing great ship Columbia and remain a free and prosperous nation is akin to setting a chimpanzee at the controls of a spaceship and expecting him to fly it to the moon. 

Liberty, where and when it exists, and especially where it endures, is the exquisite expression of human virtue. Freedom cannot long exist under any other conditions. If we are weighed in the balance of virtue and found wanting, nothing will save us.  Tyranny waits at the door.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin

Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, light vs. darkness, liberty vs. tyranny, good vs. evil. 

Pick a side.

If you can be fooled, you will be... (Matthew 24:24)

These are the times that try men's souls...

Torquemada