Article V Convention Provides Remedy against Runaway Federal Government

Congress was not designed to Interfere with the Daily Lives of Individuals

MANDEVILLE, LOUISIANA – Exclusive Transcript – Mike seeks to dismiss the persistently incorrect myths surrounding an Article V convention. Championed by forgotten founder, George Mason of Virginia, he saw the need to insert a fail-safe into the federal Constitution, should the Central Authority overstep its clearly defined enumerated powers.

Thus, by providing the People the option to call for a Constitutional Convention upon application of two-thirds of their respective state legislatures, Article V provides perhaps the ultimate check and balance against federal overreach.

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: There were 75 of you.  That room was packed.  There was not an empty seat in that room.  And what did we do?  We discussed amending the Constitution, calling an Article V Convention.  Matter of fact, today would be a good day, since its Constitution Week, to catch up with Article V, since I get bombarded with protestations about how silly and nave I am for promoting it all the time.  Heres Article V:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Now, what that says is that and we know what the history of this is.  George Mason, the most brilliant of all the founding generation, insisted at the end of the Convention of 1787, and we dramatize this in my movie, The Spirit of 76, that and Mason asked a simple question.  Let me ask you Tea Partiers the same question.  Let me ask all you alleged conservatives out there the same question.  Let me ask all of you little r republicans who have taken the founders red pill the same question.  What is your remedy for fixing this Leviathan?  What is it?  Can you tell me how you intend to accomplish this?  Can you tell me how Christine O’Donnell is going to accomplish it, how Sharon Angles going to accomplish it, how Rand Paul is going to accomplish it?  Can you?  Can you tell me how Joe Miller is going to accomplish it?  I’m ticking off Tea Party candidates here.  Not to point out their shortcomings, but to ask an honest question:  How are they going to accomplish this?

Well, let me just explain to you or just give you my thought on the matter.  It can be accomplished, and it can be accomplished by amendment.  And it must be an amendment that returns responsibility to the state legislatures and to you.  You should have firm control over your state legislature.  Stop worrying about the damn Congress.  It is supposed to be basically powerless in your daily life.  It was designed and conceived to be basically neutered when it comes to your local affairs.  The First Amendment, Second Amendment, and all the amendments dont have anything to say about what goes on in your state unless it explicitly says so.  And there are only two that I know of that do.  And they’re not in the first ten.

So we know, then, how to fix this.  And to fix this its not Amendment No. 28.  Oh, the Congress, all the laws that Congress shall apply, that Congress passes for the rest of us, shall apply to the people.  They already do.  If you want to fix this, there’s a couple ways to do this.  And what you should be doing is working inside your state and your local independent party, Republican Party, Democrat Party, whatever the case may be, lobbying your state legislature to officially call for an Article V Convention.  When two thirds of the states have concurrently done so, Congress has no choice but to convene it.  And if they wont, well, then well convene it without them.  We don’t need their permission.  This was the point.

And the point that George Mason was making was, Mr. President I played this clip yesterday what happens if the Congress becomes oppressive?  Exactly what Mason said on the 15th of September, 1787.  What happens if Congress becomes oppressive?  How are you going to get an amendment?  How are you going to stop Congress if it becomes the tyrant?  If it begins to consume the state legislatures?  If it begins to overrule the state courts?  How are you going to fix it?  And James Madison said, well, that can never happen because this Constitution is not giving the federal government that power.  And George Mason said, bull hockey.  Its not that I don’t trust you, Madison.  I don’t trust the next generation that’s going to come behind us and say, ha, Mason and Madison.  Whatever.

And so what did they do?  Article V was changed right there on the spot, on the 15th of September, 1787.  A Pennsylvanian named James Wilson took the quill pen out and got to work.  He got busy up in there.  And it was Wilson and Gouverneur Morris that did the edits as Mason requested, and made it so that the state legislatures meaning you people.  I want you to understand this.  I get called a states rights absolutist all the time.  And there are times when being a states rights absolutist is an absolute necessity.  This is one of them.

Please understand that your state legislature and your state representative and your state senator, they are your direct representatives, just as your local mayor is, just as your local town councilmen or city councilmen or aldermen are.  They are your direct representative in the scheme of little r republicanism, which is what the founding generation called it, meaning they believed in what is known today as localism.  It wasn’t called localism then, it was just called republicanism.  Its the same thing.

You can read all about the theory behind this, if you’re wondering, from a great Scottish philosopher named David Hume.  It is posted on my website in the tab at the top of the page that says The Constitution.  Just click on that tab and you’ll see, the first story up is David Hume.  The Perfect Commonwealth was the essay.  So when we say that the state legislatures need to call for a convention, what were actually saying is the people, you people.  You.  I’m talking to you, looking at your radio right now going, Oh, Mike, I don’t Ive never heard of this.  I know this is new, and I know its fresh.  And it is something that you probably haven’t heard before, especially if you’re a new listener.  You have the power.  This is how We the People take back this government as I keep hearing Tea Parties claiming they want to do.  You’re not going to take it back by installing new pieces of furniture on the deck, which is what and this is no please understand this is not a criticism of Rand Paul or any of these fine people that are running for office.  It isn’t.  But they cannot fix this beast.

In other words, they cant get inside that Mordor on the Potomac beast, that monster, and they cant plant a bomb, figuratively speaking, that’s going to dismantle this thing.  There is too much entrenchment.  There’s too much money.  There’s too much interest there.  There’s too much power than emanates and flows from that cesspool.  And it used to be a swamp, and now it is a swamp.  The area that is Washington, D.C., was a swamp.  It had to be drained and dredged so that Mordor on the Potomac could be built there.

So then all this energy that is being expended and applied towards federal elections in 2010 is going to yield to you, my friend, my humble opinion, is going to yield to you untold misery and disappointment.  You are going to historically be disappointed by this.  And you’re going to be disappointed because the amount of latitude, of wiggle room, if you will, that any Congress, no matter who you send there, has to fix this problem is infinitesimal.  They’re going to be hit with, eh, we cant cut entitlements, not in the middle of a recession.  Uh, we cant cut this program, not in the middle of a recession.  Eh, we cant cut that agency, not in the middle of a recession.  Uh, we must have the interference, no, no, we have to have an energy policy, especially in the middle of a recession.  This government is going to be chipped at at the edges.  It’ll be called a victory.  Yes, the Bush tax cuts will be extended.  Whoop-de-freaking-do.  Oh, great.  Man, I only gotta pay 36 percent of all my income to the federal government, not 38 percent.

End Mike Church Show Transcript