[ If their plan works, these Republican toadies of the
billionaires who fund and own them will rewrite our Constitution &
state governors, the US Congress, and the President will have no say
whatsoever…]
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THE SECRET GOP PLOT TO CHANGE OUR CONSTITUTION SLITHERS FORWARD  
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Thom Hartmann
December 13, 2023
The Hartmann Report
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_ If their plan works, these Republican toadies of the billionaires
who fund and own them will rewrite our Constitution & state governors,
the US Congress, and the President will have no say whatsoever… _

, Image by Willgard Krause from Pixabay

 

One of the right’s favorite fever dreams over the years has been to
gut the US Constitution of many of its checks and balances and
officially turn America into a legal oligarchy with a strongman
presidency, nearly bulletproof legal immunity for the morbidly rich,
and full personhood for corporations.

AS OF THIS MONTH, IT’S NO LONGER JUST A DREAM.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) completed their
winter “National Policy Summit” get-together in Scottsdale,
Arizona last week with Speaker Mike Johnson as its keynote speaker.
This is the group that’s brought “Stand Your Ground” and voter
suppression “model legislation” to Red states across America and,
for fifty years now, has been bringing together corporate lobbyists
and Republican state-level politicians to make state after state more
corporate- and billionaire-friendly.

AT THIS RECENT MEETING THEY ROLLED OUT A NEW STRATEGY TO CONVENE A
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, SO THEY CAN FINALLY REMAKE AMERICA IN THEIR
OWN IMAGE: THEY’RE GOING TO TRY TO GET THE SIX CORRUPT REPUBLICANS
ON THE SUPREME COURT — WHO ALL HAVE DIRECT OR INDIRECT TIES BACK TO
ALEC, ITS RELATED/AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS, AND/OR ITS FUNDERS — TO
GO ALONG WITH IT.

Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold (now a professor of law and
president of the American Constitution Society) is not prone to
hyperbole; he’s always been a thoughtful and measured speaker and
writer. So, it’s worth taking him seriously when he recently said
[[link removed]] of
MAGA Mike Johnson:

“It is alarming to have a speaker of the House who supports the
extremist Convention of States movement, which is striving to
radically rewrite the U.S. Constitution.”

— Imagine if most public schools in the country closed and were
replaced by for-profit charter and private academies — often
racially segregated and only serving families who could afford their
tuition — because the Constitution forbade state-level compulsory
education laws and taxpayer funding for education (at all levels).

— Imagine if the U.S. Constitution required the EPA, FDA, USDA, DOT,
Department of Education, and Department of Labor to shut down. All
union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety
standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with an
end to the national minimum wage and the income tax, both individual
and corporate.

— Imagine that the new billionaire-written Constitution makes it
illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters,
big banks, and even big food and pharma — all are free to rip you
off or poison you all they want, and your only remedy is in state
courts and legislatures — because the Constitution now prevents
Congress from doing anything about any of it. The federal government
can no longer even enforce voting or civil rights laws.

— Imagine if _Citizens United_ and its position that political
bribery is merely a First Amendment exercise of “free speech” were
put into the US Constitution so it can _never_ be overturned by
Congress or a future court, meaning that whichever political
candidates have the backing of the wealthiest donors pretty much win
every election for the rest of American history.

— Imagine if the free and independent press protections of the First
Amendment are gone and, like in today’s Hungary and Russia,
politicians can sue anybody who writes anything about them for
defamation or slander, effectively putting any kind of opposition
media or even honest news operations out of business.

— Imagine, to add injury to insult, that the federal government has
shut down Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, because all of
these programs (along with food stamps, Pell grants, housing supports,
and any programs that help the middle class, the less fortunate, or
disabled) are “beyond the reach” of what the federal government
can do because they’re now unconstitutional.

MORBIDLY RICH BILLIONAIRES AND THE GROUPS THEY FUND ARE WORKING TO
REWRITE OUR CONSTITUTION TO DO ALL THIS AND MORE.

They want to provide corporations and the rich with more and more
protections and benefits while chopping away at anything smelling of
“socialism” like Social Security, child labor laws, or
inheritance, income, and wealth taxes.

THE CONSTITUTION PROVIDES FOR THREE WAYS TO CHANGE OR AMEND ITSELF
[[link removed]]. THE FIRST IS
THAT CONGRESS CAN PROPOSE A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, PASS IT WITH A
SUPERMAJORITY IN BOTH HOUSES, AND HAVE THREE-QUARTERS OF THE STATES
RATIFY IT. THIS IS THE WAY IT’S BEEN DONE FOR EVERY ONE OF THE
EXISTING 27 AMENDMENTS.

The second strategy is done by using Article V of the Constitution and
driving the process up from the states. The easiest way to do this is
for three-quarters of the states to legislatively approve (with
simple majority votes in the legislatures of each state) an amendment,
in which case Congress is unnecessary and upon ratification by the
38th state, it becomes a permanent amendment to the Constitution.

While this strategy has never been used, it’s one process many of
the good-government groups like Move To Amend
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people, and money is not speech” amendment to reverse _Citizens
United_.

THE THIRD — AND INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS — STRATEGY TO AMEND THE
CONSTITUTION IS TO SIMPLY CALL A “CONVENTION OF THE STATES,” AGAIN
USING ARTICLE V, AND OPEN THE _ENTIRE_ DOCUMENT ITSELF UP TO
REWRITING AND TINKERING. 

This third strategy is the one ALEC was pushing this month. If they
can pull it off in the states (where it’s cheaper to buy
politicians), then Congress, state governors, the president, and even
the courts would have no say over it. And ALEC has spent the past 50
years becoming a major — some would say controlling — factor in
Republican-controlled state legislatures.

THEIR BARRIER HAS BEEN THAT IT TAKES 34 STATES TO CALL FOR A
CONVENTION, AND THERE HAVE NEVER BEEN THAT MANY STATES CALL FOR ONE AT
THE SAME TIME SINCE THE FOUNDING OF OUR REPUBLIC. HOWEVER, AS WAS
POINTED OUT AT ALEC LAST WEEK, EVERY STATE EXCEPT HAWAII HAS — AT
ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, STARTING WITH VIRGINIA IN 1788 — PASSED A
RESOLUTION PROPOSING A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION (THERE HAVE BEEN 400
SUCH RESOLUTIONS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF OUR NATION).

While most of history’s resolutions for a convention have been
specific to one issue or another (New York’s 1789 resolution called
for a Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution, for example,
something that Congress and the states did in 1791), a half-dozen were
simply calls for a convention without specifics. These are sometimes
referred to as “generic” convention resolutions.

THE THEORY PUSHED AT ALEC, FIRST ROLLED OUT
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YEARS AGO AT AN ALEC WORKSHOP BY CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST DAVID BIDDULPH
BUT NOW APPARENTLY FULLY ENDORSED, IS TO COMBINE THE EXISTING 28 RED
STATE RESOLUTIONS ALONG WITH THE SIX “GENERIC” ONES (GOING ALL THE
WAY BACK TO 1789) TO HIT THE MAGIC NUMBER OF 34 STATES TO OPEN THE
CONVENTION.

The key to the strategy is to get it before the Supreme Court and let
the billionaire-owned Republican justices do ALEC’s work for it by
ruling that those old resolutions are still valid, even though the
people who proposed and passed them are all long dead.

UTAH REPUBLICAN STATE REP. KEN IVORY TOLD
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LAWMAKERS IT WAS IMPERATIVE TO GET THE ISSUE BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT:

“Please join us in the state of Utah as we look into the legal
mechanisms that we have under the Constitution… to [get the Court
to] declare that Congress must count the [old] applications. … And
if, as we believe, we’ve already achieved 34 applications to
Congress for a fiscal responsibility convention, call [it]… and hold
a Convention of States.”

IF THEIR PLAN WORKS, THESE REPUBLICAN TOADIES OF THE BILLIONAIRES WHO
FUND AND OWN THEM WILL REWRITE OUR CONSTITUTION AND STATE GOVERNORS,
THE US CONGRESS, AND THE PRESIDENT WILL HAVE NO SAY WHATSOEVER IN THE
PROCESS. ONLY STATE LEGISLATURES ARE NECESSARY FOR REWRITING THE
CONSTITUTION AND THEN RATIFYING THEIR OWN WORK, ACCORDING TO ARTICLE V
OF THE CONSTITUTION, AND GOVERNORS CAN’T VETO THEIR ACTIONS.

Much like the many cases that have suddenly burst onto the scene and
then been used by the six corrupt Republicans on the Court to alter
American law and take away citizens’ rights, this one could move
quickly. Now that the ALEC meeting is over, expect to see states begin
putting together the lawsuits or other legal actions necessary to get
this proposal before the Court.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON WAS PRESCIENT: IN THE LAST SENTENCE OF FEDERALIST
85, HE WARNS US OF EFFORTS TO RE-WRITE OR REPLACE OUR CONSTITUTION:

“I dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know
that powerful individuals, in this and in other States, are enemies to
a general national government in every possible shape.”

COMMON CAUSE
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THE CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
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BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF SOUNDING THE ALARM AND I’VE HOT-LINKED
THEIR NAMES TO THEIR MOST RECENT ARTICLES ABOUT THE WORK THEY’RE
DOING TO TRY TO STOP THE BILLIONAIRE MACHINE DEVOTED TO REWRITING OUR
CONSTITUTION.

Please check them out, get on their mailing lists, and spread the
word. This is one of those things that Republicans on the Court could
use to seemingly spring out of nowhere and bring down our democracy
once and for all.

_Thom Hartmann is a NY Times bestselling author of 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* U.S. Constitution
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* Right-wing agenda
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* ALEC
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* US Democracy
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