Red Fizzle
Article V News
Will an Article V Convention be secure?
Who Said It?
Red Fizzle
by Vickie Deppe
The 2022 midterms are—for the most part—in the can. Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief while Republicans are engaged in some serious post-game analysis over their failure to produce the rout many had predicted. One thing on which most can agree, though, is that not much is going to get done in Washington for at least the next two years.
From a constitutional perspective, that’s not bad news: when the states came together to form the federal government, they retained most governing powers for themselves and delegated to the newly-created federal government those functions that it didn’t make sense for individual states to carry out on their own—things like coining money, settling disputes between the states, and conducting international diplomacy.
Most issues that impact your constituents on a day-to-day basis—things like health care, education, and public safety—lie within your constitutional purview. That means if your constituents need help solving a problem, in many instances, you don’t have to wait for Washington to do something about it. And there’s even better news: according to data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), approximately 85% of the legislation passed in the states enjoys bipartisan support. With few exceptions, no one person has the power to bring state legislative function to a screeching halt, as we have recently seen—and will probably continue to see—in DC.
State legislators are clearly more collegial and less besieged by partisan gridlock than their federal counterparts. They’re also more in touch with their constituents and in a better position to craft policy that meets local needs than are members of Congress, who haven’t yet figured out that there’s really no such thing as one-size-fits-all in a nation of 330 million people.
Perhaps one of the most interesting twists in an election cycle that has historically seen the party of the president lose hundreds of seats in statehouses across the nation is the Democratic pick-up of the Pennsylvania House as well as complete control of the legislatures of Michigan and Minnesota. For Article V advocates, this should underscore the need for bipartisanship. Again, this is not bad news: we know that state legislators are not as polarized as their counterparts in Washington. We know that they have the wherewithal to collaborate to reassert local governance. And we know that the more viewpoints represented in the discussion, the better the final product will be.
State legislators: gridlock in Washington is your chance to shine. We are ready to support you as you take full advantage of this opportunity.
Article V News
In Alabama, voters overwhelmingly approved a rewrite of its Constitution. With nearly 1,000 amendments, Alabama’s remains the nation’s longest state constitution. The document has been reorganized to make it more accessible, and more importantly, the bipartisan effort removes racist elements sanctioned by the 1901 Constitution, such as poll taxes, segregation, literacy tests, and the prohibition of interracial marriage. Though the Alabama initiative differs from an Article V Convention in that a Convention is strictly limited to proposing amendments to our existing Constitution, it nonetheless demonstrates that Republicans and Democrats can work together in an orderly way to serve their constituents through constitutional change. Read more about Senator and former House Assistant Minority Leader Merika Coleman, who spearheaded the initiative, here.
Will an Article V Convention be secure?
Rep Ken Ivory (R-UT) and Rep Carmine Gentile (D-MA) lay out the case that any such convention will be safe. (Approx. 2 minutes)
Who Said It?
“Now we’re all part of history. How many times in our lives do we get a chance to say we’re part of changing something as significant as a state constitution?”
~ Merika Coleman
Alabama Senator and former House Assistant Minority Leader
Sponsor of Amendment 4 allowing voters to approve a new Constitution