“Isn’t amending the Constitution a little excessive for the problems facing our nation? All we need is to elect the right people into office who will really follow the Constitution.”
This is an objection often raised by skeptics and critics who hear about Citizens for Self Governance’s plan to use Article V to rein in a corrupt government. But history has shown that electing better representatives is simply not enough.
Mark Meckler was interviewed by Reason.com about using an Article V “Convention of States” to amend the Constitution to limit government size and growth. He explained why the United States needs a systemic solution to a systemic problem.
Mark Meckler, a California attorney, started his political activist career as a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots in 2009. He’s since come to believe that national policy changes to shrink the expense and overreach of the federal government can be best—and likely only—achieved via an Article V convention to amend the Constitution.
Here’s an excerpt of the interview:
Reason: What problem are you trying to solve with the Convention of States project?
Mark Meckler: The Constitution acted upon and interpreted by the Supreme Court and Congress and the president is systematically, dramatically different [from what the Founders intended], with the Commerce Clause being the best example. The Commerce Clause was meant to be narrowly designed to regulate interstate commerce, and we now think of that as meaning the regulating of business or trade. In 1787 it specifically meant the shipment of goods.
That power was meant to be narrowly construed to regulate the shipment of goods across state lines, so the Constitution gave the federal government the power to deal with [interstate shipment of goods].
But over the last 115 years, that clause has been interpreted so broadly as to justify huge swaths of federal legislative power. [One thing that could come from Article V convention] is that we could redefine [the Commerce Clause] so that it means what it was intended, literally change the language so it says power to regulate the shipment of goods across state lines.
Reason: Some of the things you are trying to achieve via the Convention of States have been conservative and libertarian movement goals for a long time. What made you decide the Article V approach was best?