The Article V movement owes a debt of gratitude to Mark Levin. His book, The Liberty Amendments, published in 2013, brought the issue to the attention of the conservative reading public, and to a fair number of State Legislators as well. Unfortunately, he favors a multi-subject Amendment Convention, and this political error has had very unfortunate consequences — in particular, the Convention of States Project (CoS).
For the last few years Levin has used his radio show to promote CoS, to the exclusion of other Article V efforts, such as the BBA Task Force. Now that the CoS effort is gasping its last, perhaps he’ll be willing to think anew, and act anew. At least he could acknowledge our existence. That would be helpful. His website, Conservative Review, has never mentioned the Article V Balanced Budget Amendment. This is curious, to say the least. We do have 28 of 34, and we do have an excellent chance of hitting the magic number this year. He could claim some of the credit. He’s the dog that doesn’t bark, and I don’t know why.
If Mark had read Federalist 85 more carefully, he might have avoided the fatal mistake of a multi-subject Amendment Convention. Hamilton says, “But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established,would be a single proposition, and might be brought forward singly.” Hamilton realized Amendment Conventions should, and would, have a single subject. He was a practical politician, and he understood the political process. No experienced politician would ever draft a bill, or an amendment, with two or more controversial proposals within it. It’s like politics for beginners.
Trump’s latest bromance is with Narendra Modi of India. They talked a couple days ago, and a visit will come soon. Trump promised the Indian and Hindu community they would have a friend in the White House, and he’s keeping his word.
I like to think this is a product of strategic thinking. The fact that Defense Secretary Mattis’ first overseas visit will be to South Korea and Japan is also strategic, as is the visit next month by Japanese Prime Minister Abe. Great Britain, as the leader of the Anglosphere, is also part of the strategy. A good relationship with Vladimir Putin is also part of it as well.
I think Trump plans to confront China in the South China Sea. It could potentially get dangerous. The mission of the United States Navy is freedom of the seas. It’s a service we, along with our allies, provide to all the peoples and nations of the world. China’s claim to territorial waters off the coast of some speck of land is an affront to the freedom of the seas, and must be resisted, with force, if necessary. If it gets down to it, we want India and all the Anglosphere, and the Japanese, and South Koreans, and, yes, Russians on our side. This is why Trump wants to give :Putin a bear hug — we want the Russians at our back if we have to get rough with China.
For some reason I’ve always been sort of a Russophile. I guess because of all the great Russian literature I read when I was young. When Babbie and I were getting married in 1971 I went to the Russian Orthodox Church in San Francisco to see if they would perform the wedding service. No dice, so Roman Catholic it was. When we got to Anchorage in 1974 I took her to a Sunday Mass at the Russian Orthodox Church. This was shortly after the birth of our first child, and she wasn’t full strength. It was a two hour service, and we stood the whole time. Hey, I tried.
Even back during the Cold War, we really didn’t hate the Russians, just their government. Now that they’re no longer a threat to us, we revert to a natural friendliness to the Russian people, especially the ones like Maria Sharapova. It’s obvious from his wife’s looks that Trump is a slavophile. I guess he thinks like me. How can you hate a people that have such good looking women?
reaganproject.com 