Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Liberty Amendments --- Review

It was an easy read and it was persuasive.

Levin points out that when in doubt, refer to the Constitution itself.  Those who feel fear at the prospect of an Article V Convention to propose amendments should rest easy.  The Constitution itself says that it is for proposing amendments, not for rewriting the entire document.  Secondly, the text says that the states will ratify the amendments in the same way that any other amendments are ratified.  Finally, there should be a recognition that the federal government is already lost, there should be no fear in trying to restore it.  The Convention will succeed in restoring the Constitution or it won't.  The process itself is the potential remedy.

Not only should there be no fear of a Convention, but there should be fear of doing nothing at all.  The government is abandoning constitutional republicanism.  The federal government will not reform itself, so it is up to the states to restore the republic lest it fall into total disrepair on its own.

One other thing--- I didn't know about the Anti-Federalist Papers.  These were written in opposition to the adoption of the Constitution, and to counter the Federalist Papers, which I did know about.  The Anti-Federalist Papers warned about the conditions that we find ourselves in today.  We are being tested, if the Constitution cannot repair itself, it will have been found to be defective.  The fitness of the people for self-rule will have been exposed as inadequate if we fail this test.

Most of the rest of the book covers his proposed amendments.


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