Article V Convention and Fear-Morngering

The fear-mongering about an Article V Convention to propose amendments to the Constitution is now underway.  In an unsigned article, the anonymous author headlines the piece: “A constitutional convention could be the single most dangerous way to 'fix' American government.”  The article deliberately uses false statements and incendiary language to the end of attempting to arouse public fear or alarm about an Article V Convention.  Shades of the infamous Daisy television commercial.

For example, as to false statements: “Conventioneers could alter absolutely anything about the way the United States is governed.”  This, or course, is patently false.  At best, if a majority of the states attending such an Article V Convention voted to proposed an amendment, that amendment would then have to be circulated to the 50 states and would only become the law of the land if 3/4s of those states approved it. Accordingly, the “Conventioneers” could “alter” absolutely nothing.

As for incendiary language, the article states: “ At stake, potentially, are the freedoms we take for granted under the Bill of Rights; the powers of the president, Congress and the courts; and the policies the government can or cannot pursue.” Well, yeah . . . that is the right of the governed to control how they are governed.  Is the unknown author of this piece proposing the alternative? That the governing elite determine the limits of their power?

As for the most inane argument against an Article V Convention, the article quotes notable Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe as stating that such a Convention would be: "putting the whole Constitution up for grabs." Exactly what the Founding Father's intended when they enacted Article V!

Simply put, what is being stated here is that those in power fear a change in the status quo so completely that they would de facto amend the Constitution to prevent any amendment to the Constitution which would change the present power structure by scaring the public from calling such a Convention.

A more chilling position could not be articulated by any government official.