The intelligence division of the shebeen has been keeping an eye on the move out in the country to call a Convention of the States under Article V of the Constitution, ostensibly for the purpose of tailoring the grand old parchment to the modern era, but, in reality, a stealth attempt to re-establish the Articles of Confederation along the constitutional lines of the departed Confederate States of America. The people priming this neutron bomb are way too far along for comfort already.

And now, apparently, they’ve moved along to cosplay. From the Center for Public Integrity:

Amid historic re-enactors wearing tricorn hats and carrying muskets, more than 120 state legislators from all over the country pretended to overhaul the U.S. Constitution two years ago in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. But some believe the event was not just a history lesson. Critics say the Williamsburg get-together may have been a dress rehearsal for the real thing, and the implications of that could be both explosive and far-reaching…The mock convention in Virginia was the creation of two nonprofits operated out of the same office suite in Houston, Texas, run by the same man: Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, an attorney and former Herbalife distributor. The two groups, Citizens for Self-Governance and Convention of States Action, paid at least $130,000 combined for 81 of those lawmakers to attend the trial run. Convention of States Action also promotes model legislation, provides citizen toolkits and lobbies state legislatures to promote a convention of states.

The official propaganda would have you believe that the drive behind this ghastly idea comes from a deep and bipartisan urge by Normal Americans to Get Things Done in Washington. This unmitigated crapola is belied not only by the people and money behind the drive, but also by the politicians who have signed aboard.

Citizens for Self-Governance, also known as the John Hancock Committee for the States, collected more than $4.2 million in 2016, quadrupling its revenue since it began six years earlier. The conservative Mercer family that helped underwrite Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has donated at least $500,000, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of tax records. The Greater Houston Community Foundation, a donor-advised fund that doesn’t need to disclose its funders, has contributed more than $2 million to the nonprofit, too. Convention of States Action raised just under $122,000 in its first year in 2014, but in 2016 that amount shot up to almost $5 million, in part after one mystery donor gave just under $1.7 million.

Rebekah and Robert Mercer The Washington Post Getty Images

Naturally, the folks pushing this notion are very good at keeping the con.

Meckler told the Center for Public Integrity the September 2016 mock convention was a strictly educational, nonpartisan event, not designed to advocate for a convention, nor to motivate people to author legislation, nor to push the movement forward. “It was specifically not the purpose of the event,” he said. “We provided an educational experience for them. If somebody was excited by that, I think it’s just great that somebody got excited by education.”

Yeah, that’s what it’s all about. Education.

Most supporters of a convention of states say the process is necessary for states to wrestle power back from Congress and the courts. They say enough checks and balances exist to prevent chaos, especially since the Constitution notes that three-quarters of all states must ratify any amendments proposed at a convention.

That’s what you call a tell. So is this.

Convention of States Action has been pushing for a convention of states resolution that goes way beyond the scope of most existing efforts. While 28 states have calls out for a convention to discuss a balanced budget amendment, it seeks similar fiscal restraints but also additional limitations on federal powers. At the mock convention, lawmakers agreed upon six specific amendments. One would set term limits on Congress. Another stated that public debt shall not be increased unless two-thirds of each chamber of Congress allows it. A third would give states the power to override any federal law, regulation or executive order with a three-fifths vote.

The fact that the people behind the push for the convention very carefully throw into the fog machine is that, once you call one of these conventions, there’s no way to corral its deliberation and the six amendments described above, as well as the fact that a similar call went out in 1957, in the immediate aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, and gave away the entire game. This is reactionary politics on afterburners.

“We felt the essence of the founders there,” said state Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Ariz., who successfully passed legislation calling for a constitutional convention after the mock convention. She had sponsored similar bills in 2014, 2015 and 2016, but they had failed every time. She also downplayed the concerns about a runaway convention. “There’s no way mathematically for that to happen. There’s so much protection,” she said, noting that neither Republicans nor Democrats have a majority in more than 38 states — the number needed to ratify any changes to the Constitution.

Watching the performance of the various state legislatures with majorities clearly sympathetic to the agenda behind a convention like this does not fill me with confidence. And, if it’s all the same to everyone, I’d rather not trade James Madison for Representative Kelly Townsend.



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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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