THE NEED FOR A MOCK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: How to Wake up Americans and Encourage Their State Legislators to Amend the Constitution

December 17, 2014

The revolution in the Ukraine raised the question as to when a people will act to overthrow a government which has exceeded its bounds.  About the same time, a Georgetown law professor, lamenting President Obama’s executive orders, was mostly concerned that the American people showed no willingness to do anything despite the President’s clear constitutional transgressions.

Yet, behind the curtain of public notoriety, are the workings of those who, by various organizations, are aggressively calling for state legislators to amend the Constitution pursuant to their authority under Article V of the Constitution.  Thus far, they have not been effective and are receiving little, if any, publicity.

Campaign Constitution is one of those organizations but is different from the rest.  First, it has set forth proposed process amendments which people can vote on.  Second, it is bipartisan by concentrating on procedures rather than policies.  Lastly, and most importantly, its action plan proposes a mock constitutional convention as a prelude to an official constitutional convention. 

The mock constitutional convention would consist of five well-liked and reputable state legislators from each state – two republicans, two democrats and a fifth selected by the first four.  This process will allow representatives of all states to argue and agree on changes to the Constitution, to agree on procedures for an official convention to prevent a runaway onslaught on the Constitution and to establish leadership to direct the effort.

All that is required to execute this plan are funds to organize the mock convention, recruit the mock delegates and host the convention.  No media support nor publicity is required nor is any of that likely to be available as long as there is money to be made by arguing public policy in op-ed pieces and on cable news and talk shows.

However, one can be sure that, when the mock convention is duly assembled with its mock delegates and array of constitutional lawyers and other professionals, its activities will be extensively reported and media resistance to the effort will diminish.  The result will be that the greater part of “We the People” will become educated on how to protect their freedoms in a lawful way.  Bipartisan leadership will be established to lead the effort.  And citizens will be inspired to encourage their state legislators to adopt the procedures and proposed constitutional amendments deemed important to them.

To realize this vision, we need a leader with a small group of passionate supporters to come forth and underwrite the required organizational effort – a modest cost compared to other alternatives.  See Campaign Constitution’s Business Plan.

John M. Cogswell, Chairman

Campaign Constitution

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