Chuck Darwin<p>What should the Democrats run on? <br>Alerting every voter to what is in store for them if the radical right succeeds in its endgame to enchain American democracy.</p><p>Lurking behind the full-frontal assault by Donald Trump and his enablers lies a more far-reaching threat. <br>If the Republicans gain control of both Houses of Congress, expect a state-authorized <a href="https://c.im/tags/Constitutional" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Constitutional</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Convention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Convention</span></a> to eviscerate core rights and protections most Americans hold dear.</p><p>Imagine living in a country without 🔹Social Security, 🔹Medicare, the 🔹Affordable Care Act, 🔹the right to organize a union, 🔹civil rights enforcement, and 🔹clean air and 🔹water protections, let alone action to stop 🔹climate collapse. <br>The Constitutional Convention, in the plain language of the leading organizer for it, aims 🔸“to reverse 115 years of progressivism.”🔸</p><p>That’s big talk, 115 years. <br>Think it can’t be done? <br>Although the convention push has been all but ignored by the commentariat and national Democratic leaders, it has powerhouse backing. </p><p>The <a href="https://c.im/tags/Koch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Koch</span></a> network and other dark-money donors are generously funding it. <br>The corporation-underwritten American Legislative Exchange Council ( <a href="https://c.im/tags/ALEC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ALEC</span></a> ) has supplied “model legislation” and training to Republican state legislators. Endorsers include Mark <a href="https://c.im/tags/Meadows" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Meadows</span></a>, Ron <a href="https://c.im/tags/DeSantis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DeSantis</span></a>, Greg <a href="https://c.im/tags/Abbott" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Abbott</span></a>, Sean <a href="https://c.im/tags/Hannity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hannity</span></a>, and many more. </p><p>♦️Convention of States Action ♦️( <a href="https://c.im/tags/COS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>COS</span></a> ), the 501c(4) organization leading the campaign, whose head was a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, has recruited and deployed volunteers to lobby their legislatures. <br>(It also offers training in “biblical citizenship.”) <br>COS has held three practice conventions with legislators from nearly every state. <br>The ♦️Heritage Foundation♦️<br>—the 800-pound gorilla on the right<br>—recently signed on in “a game-changing report” that such a convention would be “a potent check on federal power” and is “a worthy cause.” </p><p>That endorsement is likely to drive even more cash to add to the over 🔸$70 million in IRS-traceable contributions 🔸that groups solely focused on convening such a gathering have garnered from 2012 to 2022, in findings of the Center for Media and Democracy. <br>That figure does not include contributions to <a href="https://c.im/tags/ALEC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ALEC</span></a>, which has promoted the convention since 2013; <br>its revenue hovers around $10 million annually.</p><p>Promoters have been methodically lining up authorizations from the states since the 2012 election showed them that 👉 most Americans reject the kind of society they seek, even Mitt Romney’s mild version. <br>So strategists concluded that the only way to permanently entrench minority rule by plutocrats and theocrats is to encase it in a 🔥dramatically altered Constitution.🔥</p><p>They count on most of us remaining in the dark until it is too late to stop their scheme.<br>So far, that’s proved a good gamble. How many of us know that there are two routes to amending the Constitution—the usual one, and the nuclear option never yet tried?<br>Under 🔸Article V 🔸of the Constitution, Congress “shall call a convention for proposing amendments” when it receives applications from two-thirds of the states. <br>In reality, this is hard, because one party would need to control both houses of 34 state legislatures (or 33 plus unicameral Nebraska). <br>But ALEC has fabricated a claim built around the idea that enough states have made<br>🔹 past calls for a convention, 🔹some going back decades, 🔹for the idea to proceed. <br>It plans to use these outdated state resolutions to argue to the courts that they should force Congress to convene one.</p><p>But it gets worse. <br>If Republicans control Congress, they won’t have to bother with litigation, because it would be up to the majority in control to determine the validity of the applications<br>—and Article V lacks the guardrails to prevent this manipulation.</p><p>Seriously? <br>Yes, alas. <br>House Speaker <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mike</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Johnson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Johnson</span></a>, who would be in a position to call it, is a longtime ally of COS.<br><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/178442/republicans-rewrite-constitution-radicalism-beyond-trump?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=0ebfdd1a-b649-4e29-8906-7cf27aa98108" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">newrepublic.com/article/178442</span><span class="invisible">/republicans-rewrite-constitution-radicalism-beyond-trump?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=0ebfdd1a-b649-4e29-8906-7cf27aa98108</span></a></p>