Congressman Andy Biggs Makes the Case Against a new Constitutional Convention

“Some conservatives assume that a constitutional convention would propose only conservative ideas like a balanced budget. It never occurs to them that Bernie Sanders supporters would show up to demand constitutional amendments requiring the taxpayers to pay for free college and other free stuff for everyone.” – Phyllis Schlafly, Founder of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles

“Article V of the Constitution has only 22 words about a convention for proposing amendments, but the most important is the word ‘call.’  Since only Congress can “call” the convention, it means that states have no control over who can be a delegate, who makes the rules, who sets the agenda or who wields the gavel.”  – Phyllis Schlafly

“As early as 1970, Council on Foreign Relations member and outspoken globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski said that the U.S. Constitution should be altered via a constitution convention to bring about globalization, and today CFR members such as former governor and secretary of health and human services Tommy Thompson are still providing the impetus for such a convention.” –  Mitchell Shaw for the John Birch Society

To many conservatives who are tired of seeing the federal government overstep its constitutional boundaries and expand its reach into areas it has no business being in, nothing seems more “grassroots” than the idea of asking Congress to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution and rein in federal government.  The erroneous argument from the self-appointed leaders of a new con-con is that this is the only way to rein in out-of-control government.  However, the devil is in the details and Representative Andy Biggs knows the dangers and a con-con is not the answer.

Congressman Biggs has made a compelling case in his book, The Con of the Con-Con, that the procedure for changing the Constitution is fraught with hazards that will likely leave Americans far worse off than they are now.  When Mr. Biggs was a member of the Arizona Senate, he was castigated every time he tried to stop the legislature from passing an application for a con-con.

Andy Biggs at PS Eagle Council

Congressman Biggs with three of the Schlafly brothers, John, Bruce and Andy.

Andy Biggs was a guest speaker at last year’s Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Council.  Both he and Andy Schlafly spoke against the various applications for a Constitutional Convention (con-con) under the guise of proposing amendments for a Balanced Budget Amendment, Term Limits, etc. via the fraudulent Convention of States Project (COSP).

Rep. Biggs is a distinguished conservative legislator and he and his wife Cindy are such a joy to see every year at the council meetings.  It was my pleasure to chat with the Congressman on the massive push by the many fraudulent organizations for an Article V Convention.

Congressman Biggs and his wife, Cindy

I asked Rep. Biggs how he became aware of the dangers of a constitutional convention (con-con).  He said he started seeing a movement to amend the U.S. Constitution initiating the second part of Article V and petitioning Congress while he was in the Arizona State House, and decided he had to stop it.

“Having served in a legislative body and having understood what a self-governing legislative body can and can’t do, either they didn’t understand it, or they were being disingenuous and would have the doors blown off our Constitution.  There were people coming up with these crazy ideas about what they thought they could do to control a new convention.  So, as a lawyer, I went back and read the minutes of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and everything about the founders that I could find and I realized what their intention was.”

The Congressman actually attended the 2012 con-con conference at Harvard with Lawrence Lessig and Mark Meckler, then co-leader of Tea Party Patriots. Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and the John Birch Society were not invited.  At the time, I wrote extensively on what happened with the coordinated effort between Mark Meckler and Harvard’s Professor Lawrence Lessig.  Link and Link

Right and Left Work Together

Rep. Biggs commented that people believe the new push for a con-con is a rightwing promotion.  “It is not just the right; the socialist group Code Pink which has ties to Castro’s Communist regime, Hugo Chavez and Venezuela’s Maduro are behind a new Article V Convention.” They were founding members of the “Move to Amend” coalition which includes Alliance for Democracy, Center for Media and Democracy, Independent Progressive Politics Network, Progressive Democrats of America, Sierra Club, Vermont for Single Payer and hundreds more.  They want to put “their man” in as a delegate to urge their amendments and constitutional changes upon the deliberations of the convention.

George Soros funds nearly every major left-wing media source in the US. Forty-five of those are financed through his support of the Media Consortium. Yes, the financier of global fascism is pumping millions of dollars into the same Article V convention campaign that is being promoted by Levin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Farris, Meckler, Barton, Coburn, Palin and dozens more.

The deceptive Left-Right coalition to rewrite the Constitution by means of an Article V convention threatens our personal rights and freedoms.

Convention of States Project (COSP)

The COSP was co-founded by Mark Meckler, formerly of Tea Party Patriots, and Michael Farris who in 2017 left the leadership to Meckler. The misinformed and manipulative leaders of a COS refuse to call this an Article V convention and they claim the states can control it.

They are misleading the gullible and uneducated public.  State legislatures apply for a convention, but it is Congress who calls, convenes or opens a convention.  In Mitchell Shaw’s New American article, Who’s Behind a Constitutional Convention, he said, “Of course that means that Congress, a branch of the same federal government the advocates of a convention claim the convention would rein in, has the power (according to Article 1, Section 8, last clause) to ‘make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution’ the convention.”

The Money Behind the Con

Too few Americans are even aware that a constitutional convention can be called, let alone that there would be no checks on its scope and further that the process to call one is well underway and being underwritten by some of the nation’s richest individuals.

Applications for a convention are coming from the “right” and the left, but with more money, a stronger campaign structure, and national coordination on the “right.” A number of major so-called “conservative” organizations and donors, including the Mercer family and Koch-funded groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), have renewed and intensified efforts to thrust this issue into the spotlight after years of inactivity.  The Koch brothers are funding many organizations as well as politicians who will promote a new con-con.  Socialists and George Soros are fighting for an Article V convention, and Soros heavily funds the “Move to Amend Coalition” mentioned above along with hundreds of others.

Billionaires Charles Koch and George Soros have formed an alliance to advocate for pacifist foreign policy, teaming up to create an anti-war think tank known as The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.  But their big joint issue is a new Constitution Convention.

Nothing Defines the Call

When the Framers got together in 1787, there were only 50 of them at one time in the room and it was closed to the public and media. They believed in and trusted each other not to speak out of turn to anyone as to what was going on inside, (unlike today’s leaks to the media about everything).

Congressman Biggs said, “A new convention is going to be absolutely out of control with the people involved from both sides.  It wouldn’t surprise me if it was held in Las Vegas as they have convention halls that are big enough and it could easily be televised.

This will not be the case in a new convention.  The world will be there…every special interest, every monied interest, every social media…all trying to get some kind of benefit into the constitution.  Virtually, every state constitution is larger than the federal constitution and the reason is that our federal constitution created a federal government to which we delegated only a handful of enumerated powers; whereas the state constitutions create governments of almost unlimited powers, and that’s what will happen at a new convention.”  (Some folks believe a new convention would be closed to the public – for the likely purpose of having the Delegates propose a new constitution which moves the U.S. into the North American Union.)

“The promoters say, ‘Well it will be limited to a Balanced Budget Amendment,’ but it’s not going to be limited.  Let me tell you I can get around every one of them, and second of all there won’t even be a nod to the enumerated powers in the Constitution.”

The Congressmen said that people have told him that Congress doesn’t have a say in the con-con, but we know they do.

Mark Levin is an aggressive promoter of an Article V convention and actually called Congressman Biggs swear words on the air because as Arizona Senate President, he had held up the vote on an application for an Article V convention in his state.  Many other legislators actually thanked Senator Biggs for holding it up.  They told him they’d have to vote for it if it had come to the floor.  Rep. Biggs told me they had no courage and they were grateful he held it up.

Everyone wants to do something to fix the out of control federal government, but as Rep. Biggs stated, “We must elect people who love our 1787 Constitution.”

A Dangerous Outcome

In light of the lists of leftist groups provided above, the results of the convention could be an outright scrapping of the constitution written by the founders in favor of one more in line with the progressive ideologies of Cenk Uygur’s Wolf-Pac, the Sierra Club, Code Pink, and others.

Remember, according to our history of the “amendments” convention of 1787,  regardless of any state or congressional legislation requiring Delegates to consider only one amendment (a balanced budget amendment, for example), the delegates would possess unlimited, though not unprecedented, power to propose revisions to the existing Constitution, based on the inherent right of the People in convention to alter, abolish, or revise their government.  This is exactly what they did in 1787 with the Articles of Confederation.

It boggles the mind to think of the potential proposals that could come out of a convention composed of such radical representatives.  George Soros’s billions are funding these fringe groups and politicians aren’t known for their ability to resist hefty campaign contributions.

The only prior constitutional convention we have had, in 1787, almost immediately disregarded their instructions to merely propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation and scrapped the Articles’ ratification requirement as well. It turned out OK; the Articles were replaced with the vastly superior U.S. Constitution. But here’s the point, no one, not Congress, not the Supreme Court and certainly not the president, has any authority to rein in a runaway constitutional convention. And all the promises made by those promoting this destruction of our Framers’ document cannot guarantee it will be controlled.  Link

Given today’s socialist and yes communist politics, who could be sure that nothing crazy would be successfully proposed, and ratified – since a new Constitution will have its own new mode of ratification?

James Madison, Father of our Constitution and fourth President of the United States said, “Having witnessed the difficulties and dangers experienced by the first Convention, I would tremble for the result of the second.”

Conclusion

Andy Biggs was elected as Representative of Arizona’s 5th District and took office in January of 2017.  In March of that same year, Arizona passed an application for a con-con because Andy wasn’t there to stop it.  At PS Eagle Council last year, he spoke for over two hours to a huge room full of people about this threat.

I would urge readers to register for this amazing three-day conference held yearly in St. Louis.  Conservative leaders and speakers are there to educate us, to answer our questions and to help us fight to Make America Great Again.

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