Congressional term limits were popular back in 1998, when Jim Demint first ran for Congress from South Carolina. He pledged, if elected, to serve only three terms. A lot of people have won election after making that promise. Demint was one of the few who kept it.
The voters rewarded him with a Senate seat in 2004. In his entire Congressional career he was about as conservative as anyone in Washington. He left the Senate to run the Heritage Foundation, which he recently parted ways with. Most recently, he wrote the forward to Congressman Ken Buck’s Drain the Swamp.
Today he’s featured in an article at Hot Air, in which he comes out for the use of Article V. He says, “I finally realized the most important truth of our time. Washington D.C will never fix itself.”
If Washington will never fix itself, what’s the point of trying to elect constitutional conservatives like Jim Demint and Senators Cruz and Lee and Sasse? These men, as smart and honorable as they are, are fighting a hopeless cause. All they can do is play defense. Washington will fight any change which takes it power and returns it to the states, and the people.
So Demint has signed on as a senior adviser to the Convention of States Project( CoSP). But there are problems with that project. They use a multi-subject Resolution, which makes getting to 34 twice as hard. And one of their subjects calls for an essentially open convention, free to propose anything that reduces the power and scope of the federal government.
That broad authority for an Amendment Convention plays right into the hands of our opponents. The only way they’ve stopped us is through fear of a runaway convention, proposing radical amendments to the Constitution. CoSP feeds that line.
There is only one way the CoSP has any chance of succeeding. We must get to 34 with the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force. We need seven more states by the end of 2018.
At this moment, the Republicans are at their high water mark in control of state legislatures. This is as good as it’s going to get. We have total control in 32, and in two more, Alaska and Colorado, Article V BBA Resolutions were passed long ago. I voted for the Alaska Resolution in 1983 as a State Senator.
And they won’t be rescinded, at least until the end of 2018, because of Republican Senate Majorities. It’s possible that the Alaska and Colorado Senates may fall to the Democrats in 2018. Then their BBA Resolutions would be rescinded and the entire Article V movement would be facing the end.
Alternatively, the Democrats could win the U. S. House in 2018, and Nancy Pelosi would rather die on her sword than see an Article V convention. So, realistically, it’s 2018 or bust.
Once Jim Demint understands all this he’ll be one of our strongest supporters. He’ll find out about it from the Phoenix Convention of States in September. He might even want to drop by.
reaganproject.com 