THIS MATTERS!
SATURDAY, MAR 25, 2017 05:58 AM EDT
Convention of the States: Is a billionaire-funded coup to rewrite the Constitution on the verge of happening?
The Wisconsin GOP is calling for a constitutional convention — only five more states are needed to make it happen
All eyes were fixed on Capitol Hill as Republicans attempted to pass an American Health Care Bill that ultimately failed. The recklessness of the party’s leadership can’t be overstated — 14 million Americans’ insurance and countless essential health benefits hung in the balance — and yet a meeting scheduled next week in the Wisconsin legislature may possess even more terrifying ramifications for the future of the country.
According to Wisconsin.gov, Republican lawmakers will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, March 28, to determine whether Wisconsin will call for a constitutional convention. While a subject of legal debate, changes to America’s governing document can be made in one of three ways: Three-quarters of the states can ratify an amendment that Congress has passed with supermajorities in both houses; three-quarters of the states, with majority votes in each, can bypass Congress by invoking Article 5 to approve an amendment; or two thirds of the states can simply use Article 5 to call a “Convention of the States” and rewrite the document as they see fit (three-quarters of the states would then need to approve their changes).
A “Convention of the States” has never been invoked before, but Republicans and Koch-backed organizations like Citizens for Self-Governance have been salivating over the possibility for years, even holding dress rehearsals in Washington, D.C., with representatives from across the country. With the federal deficit presently hovering just below $20 trillion, their ostensible plan is to add a balanced budget amendment. This alone would likely shred the country’s meager social safety net, but as Assembly Minority Leader and Kenosha Democrat Peter Barca warns theWisconsin State Journal, a constitutional convention could put citizen’s very rights “up for grabs.”
Scot Ross, executive director of liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, puts it more bluntly: “The balanced budget talk is a fig leaf to let them change America into a right-wing alternative universe.”
In an essay earlier this month, AlterNet’s Thom Hartmann explored a few scenarios that were once the stuff of Federalist Society fever dreams and are now all too plausible:
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