Constitutional Hypocrisy: Amazingly, so many Americans express love and respect for the US Constitution, yet so few understand how and why Congress has gotten away with disobeying a piece of it.

by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)

foavc.org
Tuesday, October 13, 2009


Millions of Americans are politically informed, smart, active and angry. They see many wrongs in our political and government system. They are fed up with politics as usual, meaning corrosive corruption of politicians by corporate and other special interests. They see little good in either the Democrat or Republican parties. And they almost always share a common bond: They love and honor the US Constitution, even though they may see some flaws in it. Yet they are also constitutional hypocrites.

Why do I say this? Because Americans are overwhelmingly ignorant or misinformed about the constitutional paths for amending the Constitution. Too many, in fact, seem to miss the profoundly important point that the Founders and Framers knew that they had not created a perfect document and blueprint for the US. That is why they placed two specific paths for amending the Constitution.

But very few Americans know that only one of these amendment mechanisms has been used in the entire history of the country. All the current amendments were proposed by Congress. This should raise this serious question today: Considering the very low regard for Congress by the overwhelming majority of Americans, which is richly deserved, why should we have any confidence that Congress would ever propose amendments that could kill so much of the corruption that plagues our system, especially corruption of members of Congress?

This situation was somehow anticipated by the Framers. They could see that there was a strong possibility that Americans would eventually lose confidence in the federal government. Which is why they put a second path to amending the Constitution into the document. A path that has never been used. This is the provision in Article V for a convention of state delegates that could propose amendments, which like the proposals from Congress would still have to be ratified by three-quarters of the states.

Being human, the Framers made a mistake. They gave Congress the sole power to call or convene an Article V convention. The single explicit requirement that was supposed to make Congress call a convention was that two-thirds of state legislatures had to request an Article V convention. The Framers did not, apparently, envision a future in which Congress would stubbornly ignore state applications for a convention and get away with it, despite language that demands that Congress "shall" call a convention when one simple requirement is met. How could they envision that Congress would blatantly disobey something so simply stated in the Constitution? How could they anticipate such weak states, unwilling to make Congress respect their constitutional right? The Framers clearly were not cynical enough.

The situation we face today is that all 50 states have submitted over 750 applications for a convention, considerably more than enough to trigger the constitutional mandate that Congress convene an Article V convention. How could Congress get away with this kind of unconstitutional behavior? Apparently, a combination of political corruption and public ignorance has allowed Congress to get away with this. Even among the millions of Americans that proudly declare their loyal allegiance to the Constitution, there is no recognition that unless they demand that Congress obey Article V, they are constitutional hypocrites. Congress has no right to unilaterally decide that it can ignore and disobey a part of the Constitution.

Note that Congress never even created a mechanism where they would collect in a public way the state applications for an Article V convention, which helped create public ignorance of this situation. Add to this that many, many organized vested interests on the left and right like their ability to corrupt Congress to get what they want from it. This is why they have frequently mounted campaigns to make the public fear a convention, because such a convention might actually propose reforms that would remove corruption of Congress by contributing money for campaigns and pursuing lobbying.

Ignorance and fear have combined to thwart public demands that Congress obey the Constitution and convene the first Article V convention. In fact, there is only one national, nonpartisan organization vainly attempting to educate the public so that Congress would be forced to finally give us the first Article V convention. Friends of the Article V Convention at foavc.org is also the only group that has collected state applications for a convention and made them publicly available.

Their efforts may be working. A new online survey asked this: Based on your assessment of American politics, would you support or oppose a call for a Constitutional Convention? Supporters won easily at 65 percent.

It comes down to this, unless you get informed and join the mission to make Congress obey the Constitution, you are a constitutional hypocrite, not what the nation needs.

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Comment by TheLasersShadow on January 11, 2012 at 2:16am

Being a realist, The constitution is a piece of paper and has been ignored and violated from the start. The solution is a population that is educated and one that demands it be enforced .... We've gone so far outside the framework of that document that going back means deleting 70% of the US Gov. I don't see that happening.

I'm for freedom anyway I can get it I don't hold the constitution as holy as some do I see it as the best governing doc that has ever been penned but honestly things have gone bad in so many ways I don't see how amending it will help even if you could get the right sentences added. We have a supreme court that voted 5-4 on the individual right to keep and bear arms. Thats unacceptable, thats insane beyond measure 9-0 was the only correct answer. We have have a public that doesn't know why letting the government claim the right of indefinite detention or the right to murder any citizen it wants as long as they are labelled a terrorist is wrong. A public that knows more about snookie than the money in their wallet. The gov will always be able to get away with as much as the public lets it.

I also don't agree with the get money out of politics camp as no ones been able to explain how to fund a campaign with out public funding that would be controlled by the sitting government. Just look at our debate system and how corrupt it is, just to get into a debate in the general as a third party you have to have something like 20% or what ever ratio they set for that year. I can't imagine how the gov would decide who got how much campaign money. Taking the market out of those decisions however satisfying it would be has a huge downside. Term limits and an awake public are again a solution. 

Comment by Marklar on January 10, 2012 at 11:53pm

So, are you for ignoring the constitution wholey then or only in part?

For the continued concentration of all power at the federal level?

Congress can already ammend at will, but of course ammending the constitution would imply that it has validity so they won't. Seems to me there is a reason that they refuse to allow that power to be decentralized out of their exclusive control despite the fact that they have no power to do so except by way of treasonous inaction in regard to their constitutional responsibilities as spelled out quite plainly in black and white.

If you respect the constitution you should want them to obey it. If not then why would you care? Seems like a no brainer to me. I suspect that like many it is sacrosanct right up to the point at which you disagree with some jot or tittle. A very common way of thinking but that's really not the way it's supposed to work, nor CAN it work that way as evidenced by the last 240 or so years and where we find ourselves today as we ignore EVERY jot and EVERY tittle.

Rock on though Laser.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on January 10, 2012 at 10:04pm

You DO NOT WANT a Constitutional Convention unless our people are in control. I don't see anything good coming from it remember THIS CONGRESS just passed the NDAA!! I would never want them to be able to amend the constitution at this point. I would not trust the state delegates any more than the congress. What would you even ask for that the congress follow the same laws we do? that would do noting IMHO. You would never get a REAL proposal approved that would fix things as the system is so corrupt and sick.

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