Conservatives call for constitutional intervention last seen 230 years ago

Lawmakers push for ‘constitutional convention’ to restrict federal government – and it’s not as far fetched as it sounds

The Guardian

There is growing confidence a convention could take place, introducing new constitutional amendments: ‘We’re in a battle for the future of our country.’ Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

It’s been more than 230 years since America’s last constitutional convention, but there is growing confidence in some conservative circles that the next one is right around the corner – and could spell disaster for entitlement programs like medicare and social security, as well court decisions like Roe v Wade.

“I think we’re three or four years away,” said the former Oklahoma Senator

Tom Coburn on Friday, speaking at the annual convention for American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) – a powerful rightwing organization that links corporate lobbyists with state lawmakers from across the country.

Coburn, a veteran Republican lawmaker, now works as a senior adviser for the advocacy group Convention of States, which seeks to use a little known clause in article V of the US constitution to call a constitutional convention for new amendments to dramatically restrict the power of the federal government.

Coburn, who retired from the Senate in 2010, said that the American republic is “failing”, and that such a convention is the “only answer” to the problems the country faces today.

“We’re in a battle for the future of our country,” Coburn told the assembly of mostly conservative state lawmakers meeting in New Orleans. “We’re either going to become a socialist, Marxist country like western Europe, or we’re going to be free. As far as me and my family and my guns, I’m going to be free…”

Read the full article here

Letter: rescind Wisconsin’s constitutional convention application here

Read more Breaking News here

View more Galleries from ABHM here