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WARN VOTERS ABOUT THE RADICALISM BEYOND TRUMP  
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Nancy MacLean
February 8, 2024
The New Republic
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_ The Republicans are plotting to literally rewrite the Constitution
to eliminate core rights and protections. The Constitutional
Convention, in the plain language of the leading organizer for it,
aims “to reverse 115 years of progressivism.” _

Photo Credit: YouTube,

 

What should the Democrats run on? Alerting every voter to what is in
store for them if the radical right succeeds in its endgame to enchain
American democracy.

Lurking behind the full-frontal assault by Donald Trump and his
enablers lies a more far-reaching threat. If the Republicans gain
control of both Houses of Congress, expect a state-authorized
Constitutional Convention to eviscerate core rights and protections
most Americans hold dear.

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. The Constitutional Convention, in the plain
language of the leading organizer for it, aims “to reverse 115 years
of progressivism
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That’s big talk, 115 years. Think it can’t be done? Although the
convention push has been all but ignored by the commentariat and
national Democratic leaders, it has powerhouse backing. The Koch
network
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other dark-money donors are generously funding it. The
corporation-underwritten American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
has supplied “model legislation” and training
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Republican state legislators. Endorsers include Mark Meadows, Ron
DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Sean Hannity, and many more. Convention of
States Action
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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. (It also offers training in
“biblical citizenship
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held three practice conventions with legislators from nearly every
state. The Heritage Foundation—the 800-pound gorilla on the
right—recently signed on in “a game-changing report
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that such a convention would be “a potent check on federal power”
and is “a worthy cause.” 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. That figure does not include contributions
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ALEC, which has promoted the convention since 2013; its revenue hovers
around $10 million annually.

Promoters have been methodically lining up authorizations
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the states since the 2012 election showed them that most Americans
reject the kind of society they seek, even Mitt Romney’s mild
version. 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.

They count on most of us remaining in the dark until it is too late to
stop their scheme.

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?

Under Article V of the Constitution
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Congress “shall call a convention for proposing amendments” when
it receives applications from two-thirds of the states. In reality,
this is hard, because one party would need to control both houses of
34 state legislatures (or 33 plus unicameral Nebraska). But ALEC has
fabricated a claim
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around the idea that enough states have made past calls for a
convention, some going back decades, for the idea to proceed. It plans
to use these outdated state resolutions to argue to the courts that
they should force Congress to convene one.

But it gets worse. 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—and Article V
lacks the guardrails to prevent this manipulation.

Seriously? Yes, alas. House Speaker Mike Johnson
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who would be in a position to call it, is a longtime ally
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COS.

So how exactly would a convention nullify the Democratic agenda, past
and current? The six amendments adopted
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the Simulated Convention held in Williamsburg, Virginia, on August 4,
2023, would dismantle reforms We the People have won over generations.
The centerpiece amendment, entitled “Fiscal Restraints,” is a
one-two punch to knock out popular programs such as Social Security,
unemployment insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. By mandating that
two-thirds of both houses of Congress would have to agree to any tax
increase, it would force annually balanced budgets, while making it
all but impossible to raise revenue from the wealth-hoarding ultrarich
who back this radical agenda.

Another amendment takes dead aim at all federal regulation since 1937
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rights and environmental policies since then. It would obliterate the
“administrative state,” the bugbear of the hard-right coalition.
The measure would in short order end fair labor standards, antitrust
enforcement, environmental protections, safeguards for workers who
choose to unionize, civil rights on the job and in public
accommodations, and the Affordable Care Act, among other hard-won
reforms that ease hardship and protect us from corporate domination.

Still another amendment
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allow a simple majority of state legislatures “to abrogate any
action of Congress, President, or administrative agencies.” That
could stop federal intervention to ensure the equal citizenship rights
established in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.

The simulated convention’s last adopted amendment would be a
gargantuan gift to fossil fuel corporations. It would require Congress
to turn over to state control virtually all federal lands and mineral
rights, including any national park, monument, or wilderness area
designated since 1975
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But this is madness, you will say. These reactionaries could never get
away with rewriting the Constitution!

Except they could. First, because the instigators have already adopted
a representation scheme
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the convention based on one-vote-per-state, chosen by the
legislatures; it gives near-empty states like Alaska and Wyoming the
same power as California and New York. Second, because by crooked
counting (“aggregating
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of ancient authorizations with those recently obtained, planners claim
that the threshold needed to call a convention under Article V
has already been met
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two-thirds of the states. Third, because most of us aren’t even
aware that this is happening.

For the American people to realize how much is at stake will require
vast and to-the-point popular education. While the right has been
tutoring its base in its version of the Constitution for years, the
left has dropped this ball badly, particularly on such vital but wonky
matters as how interpretation of the Commerce Clause
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1937 enabled all the federal regulations demanded by voters that had
been overturned until then by reactionary justices.

But here’s the silver lining as we approach November. Democrats
could jiujitsu this. Why not use the right’s menace to the
Constitution to energize turnout to reclaim
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Democrats state legislatures lost since 2010
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The consummation of the right-wing plan depends on convention backers
being able to control most statehouses. If Democratic get-out-the-vote
workers train voters to fill out the entire ballot, including state
legislative and judicial races, progressives could reclaim vast power
to enact the popular agenda that Republican elected officials have
blocked.

This urgent emphasis on winning at the state level could pay off
handsomely. It might even help top-of-the-ticket candidates. Few know
it, but the 2016 election was likely the first time a president was
swept into office on the “reverse coattails
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of Senate candidates (thanks to a flood of last-minute money from
corporate donors afraid of losing the upper chamber in the predicted
Hillary Clinton sweep). Wouldn’t it be a delicious inversion if
President Biden won reelection and Republicans suffered a shellacking
in House and Senate races because informed voters turned out in epic
numbers to keep the right from rigging the Constitution?

_[NANCY MACLEAN is the William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of
History and Public Policy and author most recently of Democracy in
Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for
America
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* 2024 Elections
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* Donald Trump
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* GOP
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* Republican Party
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* MAGA
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* Make America Great Again
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* Constitutional Convention
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* Koch Bros.
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* Koch brothers
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* Koch network
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* American Legislative Exchange Council
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* ALEC
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* Fascism
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* democracy
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* Joe Biden
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* Democrats
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* Democratic Party
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