Month: November 2018

Does this sound familiar?  A centrist Democrat beats back a leftist to win the Democratic presidential nomination.  The Democratic candidate loses the election to a Republican most people don’t like.  The leftist Democrats then take over the party organization, and amend the rules to ensure a centrist won’t win the presidential nomination again.

It was 1968, the Democrat was Humphrey, and the Republican was Nixon.  The leftist Democrats were led  by Bobby Kennedy until he was killed.  The leftists then coalesced behind George McGovern.  He led the effort to amend the rules, and was rewarded by the 1972 presidential nomination.  He was so far left he lost one of the great landslides in American history.

Now, of course, the centrist Democrat was Clinton, and the leftist leader who lost the nomination was Bernie Sanders.  The Sanders wing of the party has taken control of it, and has changed the rules, ensuring that no centrist can win the 2020 nomination.  All that remains to be seen is who the next George McGovern is.

To win the hearts of the hard left you must be pure, you must let no one get to your left.   It will be a stampede to socialism, and whoever wins will be an extremist.

That’s why Trump gets a second term.  His first opponent was the most unpopular nominee ever.  His second will be the most far left wing in American history.

The Good Lord has been kind to the political career of Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton lost to the of the most unpopular Presidential candidates in our history.  She was only able to pull that off because she was more unpopular than he was.  And the D’s are going to give her a second chance?

No, she’s milking her potential candidacy for just a little more grift.  The Clintons have been doing this for 30 years.  It’s hard to give up.

We can all thank God that Chelsea Clinton is such a schlub.  If she were at all attractive she’d be groomed for another generation of the family money grubbing.

Since all we’re going to get out of Congress for the next few years is partisan warfare, the place to look for fun will be the crowded Democratic presidential primary.  Since none of them stand out, they all have a shot.  In early 1972 Sen. George McGovern (of South Dakota!) was at 2% in the polls.  Anything can happen.  Someone could have a Spartacus moment.

The energy is all on the hard left, so that’s where the competition will be.  There could be more than a dozen serious candidates.  How do they distinguish themselves?  They’ll be catering to the most extremist wing of the party.  It will force them into indefensible positions, which the eventual nominee will have as a burden in the general.

Odds are, Trump gets a second term.

Article V, which allows the states to propose amendments to the Constitution, contains a fatal flaw.  It’s why it’s never been used.

The state legislatures of this country have had 229 years to reach Article V’s 2/3 quorum requirement.  Many attempts have been made.  The efforts which have almost succeeded have been bipartisan.  But getting the supermajority for a quorum is too hard, so it’s never happened.

Currently, both Republicans and Democrats want to use Article V to amend the Constitution.  The Republicans want a Balanced Budget Amendment.  The Democrats want campaign finance reform.  The Republicans have stalled out at 28 of the needed 34 states, and will almost certainly be soon rolled back to 26.  The Democrats only have five.

If Article V is ever to be used, for any purpose, by anyone, it needs to be fixed.  A majority of states should be all that is needed to constitute a quorum, the license to meet and do business.  The 2/3 supermajority should only be needed to propose the amendment.  It’s exactly the way Congress works.

For Article V to be fixed, it has to be used.  But this could actually happen, because fixing Article V should have completely bipartisan support.  The state legislators who would vote to fix Article V, would all be voting in their personal self interest.   They would be empowering themselves.  And once they demonstrate, by fixing Article V, that they do, indeed, have the power to amend the Constitution, they will understand that they, collectively, can fix this country.

 

 

With the legislative losses in Colorado and New Hampshire, the Article V BBA movement’s tally will very likely be reduced from 28 states to 26.  The new Democratic majorities are in debt to the Soros Empire, and he will demand, and get, rescission votes.

The all Republican path to the required 34 states lasted from 2014 to 2018.  That was the window, but it’s now closed.  We could theoretically get from 26 to 31 with the addition of MT, ID, SC, KY and VA.  But we won’t get over 31, because no Democrat will allow it.

If the Republicans flip three state Houses in 2020 (a distinct possibility with a Trump landslide), 34 could again be within reach.  It could be 2022, or 2024.

We’ll get there, eventually.  Article V is the only constitutional remedy for an out of control, entrenched Congress.  Congress will only go downhill from here.  Something will have to be done, and Congress is incapable, on a bipartisan basis, of reforming itself.

This political movement was founded in 1975 by a couple of old blue dog Democratic state legislators.  I first got involved as a State Senator in Alaska in 1983.  So I’ve been at it for 35 years.

I’ll be 80 years old in 2025, and I’ll keep at it until then.  The movement will then be 50 years old.  Time for new blood.

Trump is a master juggler.  He keeps a lot of balls in the air, and it distracts people.  He, on the other hand, thrives in turmoil.  It gives him an advantage, because he’s quicker than everybody else.  There will be a lot of turmoil after the election.  But it won’t phase Trump.  He thrives in what seems like chaos to others.

AG Jeff Sessions will be the first firing.  Getting a replacement confirmed by the Senate will take months, so will Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein run the Justice Department in the mean time?  I don’t think so.  Rosenstein gets canned as well.  Nobody deserves it more.

The number 3 at Justice is Solicitor General Noel Francisco, and he’ll run DoJ until a new AG is nominated and confirmed.  Among his duties will be supervision of the Mueller witch hunt.  I suspect Mr. Francisco will have some pointed questions to ask.  Such as, What in the hell do you think you’re doing?

Noel Francisco is a Filipino-American, and an outstanding lawyer.  Let’s hope he’s got guts as well.  He’ll need them.  At some point, of course, he’ll be called a racist and a Nazi.  Before long these accusations will be so routine that they can be laughed away.  Leftists long ago stuck their thumb in their mouth, and began holding their breath and rolling around the floor.  Now they’re all purple, and what’s left?

During the campaign, Trump said the states should be free to decide what to do with marijuana.  Sessions disagreed, and Trump hasn’t pushed it.  With Francisco, I expect a major rationalization of federal policy.  Each state can make its own decision.  Federalism in action.

AP is out with a story on Article V.  The Convention of States, with its 12 resolutions, is mentioned.  But nothing about the BBA Task Force, and its 28 resolutions, just six short of the needed 34.  This even though a fervent BBA backer, AZ Rep. Kelly Townsend, is quoted in the article.

Why did that dog not bark?  The real story is that the BBA is only six states short.  Why is that not mentioned?   The job of the AP isn’t to report the news anymore.  It’s to suppress it when it’s inconvenient.

All we need for 34 is President Trump’s support, which we can get by a more focused approach to the generic “balanced budget amendment”.  It’s really just a question of semantics.

Don’t call it a general BBA.  Call it a specific “line item veto”, which is nothing more than a form of a balanced budget amendment.  That, Trump wants.  That, Trump can sell.  And that is how we get the first Article V amendment in American history.