The American spiral towards a hybrid socialist fascist state is getting to a critical point. Today the forces lined up against freedom are both significant and numerous. While some of these threats have been evolving over time others have emerged just the last few years. In many ways it is looking like the forces for liberty and freedom have been out flanked by those seeking a statist utopia. What is certain is that, if those forces destroying America are not stopped, the ideas that sparked the War for Independence will soon be interned in the cold crypt of history.

One of the oldest threats to freedom is the burgeoning bureaucracy. Congressional delegating of its authority to nameless bureaucrats has become a routine way of absolving them of their responsibilities. The result has been a massive transfer of power from congress to hordes of nameless public servants and the president who oversees them. An act that not only has been a clear dereliction of duty but has put the republic at risk. An expanding bureaucracy has long been recognized as one of the inherent threats to freedom. As Hayek warned in his book The Road to Serfdom, it creates a fourth branch of government that is wholly unelected with massive amounts of power and little accountability. One that can make laws and prosecute offenders with near impunity. It can even shut down whole industries like the EPA is trying to do to coal. An iron fist whose ever tightening grip on American life is nearly impossible to resist.

The courts as well have gone far beyond their edict. Of the three branches of government, Alexander Hamilton said the Supreme Court would be the “least dangerous to political rights” with the least ability to “injure or annoy them.”  Hamilton would be surprised to find the judiciary has become a potent force in political life for both good and ill. Its ability to declare what is and is not constitutional has been abused throughout its history but lately it has taken on extra powers as well. Re-writing laws and imposing its will on the American people often with contentious 5-4 decisions. In essence the court has become a branch of government where one unelected official with a lifetime appointment can decide the fate of a nation.

The Presidency, for its part, was designed to be a rather insignificant political post. Aware of the danger of charismatic tyrants, the founders fenced in presidential powers. While he was the leader in foreign affairs and Commander and Chief of the armed forces, his domestic duties were mostly ceremonial. His main authority rested in the ability to say no, that is the power of the veto. Today the power of the President in domestic matters is extensive. Congress has given him vast agencies at his disposal through which he can make sweeping changes in domestic policy nearly unimpeded. Sometimes he does so within the authority delegated to him and sometimes in total disregard for both the law and the constitution. As Obama has said on numerous occasions, if congress does not act he will.

All of this does not even take into account the Federal Reserve, a system not wholly government and not wholly private. It was created to do what it has never done; specifically, the FED was the magic bullet meant to stop recessions and bank failures. Both of these have been worse since its inception. The fact is the abdication by congress of its authority over the monetary system to this semi-private entity is questionable on many levels including constitutionally

The United States sits on the precipice of a new era, one which freedoms are endowed by government and rights are whatever Washington decides they are. A time when the country is facing financial ruin at the hands of politicians who see it as a small price to pay to advance their political fortunes. Given the present situation there are a growing number of Americans that feel that a revolution might be needed to sit things right. Powerless to stop the bankrupting of their country and the suffocation of their liberty many are wondering what other alternative is there? Author, talk show host and legal scholar Mark Levin has proposed what might be the answer.

His proposal does not involve a armed revolutionaries but instead its a soft revolution using the tools the founders left the people of the United States. The ideal, which he lays out in his new book The Liberty Amendments, is to utilize the one method for amending the constitution never used before. A method put in place just for such a situation as this.

(Levin’s book can be read about and purchased here)

The founders of the United States foresaw the possibility that congress might become a tool of tyranny and in case of such an event the states would need some recourse. That recourse is an federal (or amendment) convention as laid out in Article V. It says if at least 2/3 of the states want to hold a convention to propose new amendment(s) it is their right. If in turn 3/4s of the states approve the proposed amendments they become part of the law of the land. A process for which no one from Washington DC is invited.

This plan has legs for several reason not the least of which is the radicalism prevalent inside the Washington beltway is a rare commodity in the states. America is still a conservative country with conservative roots. All but twelve of the most liberal states would be needed to accomplish the task but the numbers are not totally unfavorable.

Votes by County 2004; Red Being Republican

What is needed next is a grass roots push to elect state legislators favorable to a constitutional convention. People with convictions and purpose. The amendments themselves still have to be drafted. Levin puts eleven in his book many of which are worth considering.  Ideas like restoring the balance between states and the federal government by removing the seventeenth amendment and restoring article I section 3 that put the senate in the hands of the states. Other amendments that prune back the power of the Supreme Court back to what the founders intended and limit congressional tenure are also included.

While the exact amendments states would vote on are yet to be written but the important thing it is one way forward. A plan that addresses the concerns of many but avoids the confrontations many country’s resort to. Those who love freedom and embrace liberty must not put all hope in such a proposal but it is a worthy addition in the fight against the liberal cancer destroying the nation. In the end, the restoration of the American Republic is essential to United States long term survival and Levin’s soft revolution provides a way to do that.

“The Conservative Mind”

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