A recent exchange on Mark’s facebook page led me to post the following comments. If you think this explanation will be helpful for others to crystalize the simplicity of the message of federalism, please feel free to share.
Author Archives: Joshua Lyons
Restraining the Federal Beast by Article V
During the first hour of Saturday’s The Forgotten Men radio show, we spoke with North Dakota State Senator, Curtis Olafson. Along with RestoringFreedom.org (the non-profit that wrote the language for the National Debt Relief Amendment), The Goldwater Institute, and other citizens across the country, Sen. Olafson is pressing the case that by using the tools the Founding Fathers left us (e.g. Article V of the US Constitution), we can begin to solve the challenges we face as a nation. Sen. Olafson’s commentary (in italics below) not only highlights the unfounded concerns we’ve been brought up to fear, but it cuts to the heart of the debate whether an Amendments Convention would actually “runaway.” Please join Mark and I by taking time to educate yourself and those around you on this viable Constitutional solution. The only thing to fear is not fear itself; it’s continuing down the same path we’re on, which leads to certain disaster. By restraining the federal behemoth with tools such as the National Debt Relief Amendment, we can begin “to bind [it] down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
In order for an Amendments Convention to “runaway” and produce the adoption of an extremist or dangerous amendment, the following sequence of events would need to happen:
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- 34 states need to pass resolutions which are identical in language and must contain the same proposed amendment(s) in order for Congress to be compelled to call an Amendments Convention.
- Delegates to an Amendments Convention are selected by the state legislatures and would act as an agent of their legislature. They would need to vote to ignore the will of their state and the mandate that they would receive to limit their deliberations to the amendment(s) specifically identified in the resolution. If they ignore the mandate from their state legislature, they could and should be immediately recalled and replaced.
- A convention voting to consider ideas beyond the scope and call of the resolution would immediately be challenged with court action. The court would need to brazenly ignore the clear intent of the Founding Fathers and wrongly rule that the convention is valid when they clearly should rule that the convention is null and void and order its dissolution.
- The convention delegates would then need to agree on a radical, extremist or dangerous amendment.
- Congress, in its ministerial capacity of submitting to the states any proposal agreed to in a convention, would need to ignore the fact that the convention ignored the restriction of the resolution and went beyond the scope and call of the convention. Congress should lawfully refuse to send the proposed amendment(s) to the states for ratification.
- 38 states would need to ignore the fact that the convention delegates went beyond the scope and call of the convention and would need to ratify the proposed amendment(s).
- The most important protection against a radical, extremist or dangerous amendment is this irrefutable fact: Unless and until 38 states ratify a proposed amendment, the Constitution is untouched and nothing changes.
Any individual or organization that preaches that we should fear an Article V Amendments Convention should be challenged to produce their list of 38 states that they fear would ratify a radical, extremist, or dangerous amendment.
For more information on an Article V Amendments Convention and the National Debt Relief Amendment, please visit the following links:
http://www.restoringfreedom.org
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/ArticleV
Apparently, We’re All Racists
After being called a racist on twitter by an ignorant hack who had never even listened to The Forgotten Men, I sat back and reflected on a topic that I justifiably give very little thought to: Racism.
Apparently, we’re all racists now. Yep, if you’re associated with the TEA Party – you’re automatically a racist. If you support cutting extra-constitutional federal funding – you, of course, hate minorities. If you have white skin and say anything that can be taken out of context related to race or color – you got it, you hate all “non-whites”. If you state that you’re not a racist and even live your life as the opposite of a racist – doesn’t matter because, bingo…you’re a closet racist.
Seriously?!? All you ignorant hacks out there who resort to ad-hominem attacks and play the race card at the drop of a hat because you have nothing else to bring to the discussion, I have one response for you: You are irrelevant.
Those of us who want to restore proper limitations on the federal government want to do so regardless of the racial profile of the elected officials in office. Those of us, who want to restore federalism, want to do so for Conservatives, Liberals, Independents, and Progressives (i.e. anyone, regardless of political persuasion). Those of us who want the Rule of Law to apply to every individual do so regardless of a person’s race or where they fall on the economic ladder.
Are there white racists out there involved in some way with the liberty movement? Unfortunately, yes. Do they represent the majority? No, and ridiculously far from it. Their numbers are miniscule in size and similar to the numbers of black racists in the civil-rights movement. Most people of any race are good people who simply want the best for their posterity as well as the posterity of others. However in the culture that we live, the few nuts and outspoken yahoos tend to bubble-up to the top and get covered relentlessly by our media; there is a negative and a positive side to this though. On one hand, we’re subjected to their monotonous drivel. But on the other hand, we can spot them for what they are (ill-bred fools) and ostracize them for their ignorance.
The foundation of the liberty movement is liberty for all individuals regardless of race. Those who want to charge us with racism using a broad brush are simply putting their own ignorance high on a pedestal for all to witness. The average citizen is fed up with these clowns’ display of shameless race baiting. If these fools keep freely throwing around the “you’re a racist” card much longer, their relevance in the national dialogue will sit on the shelf along with the actual racists they seem to feed off.
While we still have to listen to the obnoxious rants and chants of both the racists and race-baiters, it’s high time that we relegate them both to the dustbin of history and stop giving them a platform to spew their color commentary. Oh wait…color commentary…how racist of me?!
Joshua is the co-host of The Forgotten Men radio show Saturdays at 12 noon ET, on AM930 WFMD.
Press Release
The Forgotten Men Radio Show Announces New Second Hour
Frederick, Maryland, April 29, 2011: On Saturday, May 7, the provocative radio talk show The Forgotten Men will begin broadcasting for a second hour every Saturday. Since September of 2009, the show, broadcast from Frederick, Maryland’s AM930 WFMD studio, has the held the 12-1pm time slot and will now continue broadcasting until 2pm Eastern Time.