In a recent appearance on a Convention of States (COS) podcast, the organization’s president, Mark Meckler, told his supporters that they need to be “in it for the long haul,” predicting the need for a “10 to 25 year plan” to “save this country.”
“It means it’s up to you and me,” Meckler said Sunday night on an episode of The Battlecry podcast. “We have to grow the conservative movement, the conservative grassroots army, big enough, strong enough, deep enough, long enough with a long enough term perspective to save this country.”
Although Meckler makes this claim, he offers no support for it. On the face of it, that’s probably for three reasons: First, the COS plan to persuade states to call for an amendments convention is failing; second, Meckler knows that states could begin today restoring liberty to the people by way of nullification of unconstitutional federal laws; third, the phenomenon known as the “Overview Effect” blinds people to a lack of noticeable progress by focusing their attention on the big picture. This phenomenon at once convinces the observer that there is plenty of time to act and that the lack of acting hasn’t done much damage to the cause. Let’s take up those three in reverse order.
First, by expanding the field of reference of the COS supporter, Meckler relieves himself and his colleagues in COS leadership of having to provide any evidence of effective use of the funds donated by those supporters.
Meckler’s call to be “forward looking” is a classic misdirection, drawing the attention of the audience to one of the magician’s hands, while the other makes the object of the illusion “disappear.”
Next, it is a well-known fact that the COS organization opposes any effort by states to refuse to enact unconstitutional programs or policies of the federal government. Mind you, COS claims to want to fight back against federal overreach, but only if the fight is carried on according to their rules.
In other words, regardless of the record of indisputable success of states in nullifying federal regulation of marijuana — 23 states have legalized the use of marijuana in defiance of federal “law” — COS insists that nullification would never work. Somehow, they likewise claim that a Constitutional Convention — an untried, uncertain, and uncontrollable process fraught with danger — is the surest way to combat federal usurpation.
Third, Meckler must paint a Potemkin village for COS supporters to see because he knows that behind that facade is years of feckless effort to convince state legislatures to sign on to a second Constitutional Convention. Since 2014, only 19 of the necessary 34 states have passed resolutions calling for an amendments convention. Furthermore, as I’ve pointed out before, many of these resolutions are non-binding and cannot be counted, as the legislators that passed those resolutions are no longer in office and to insist the resolutions are valid would likewise deprive people of their republican form of government, as guaranteed by Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, by depriving the people of representation.
Tragically, COS is not as committed to the Constitution as it is to subjecting the Constitution to the tampering of a convention. If COS were committed to restoring the balance of constitutional power, then it would support the cause of nullification, as that tactic has proven capable of checking federal overreach, rather than flogging a fruitless scheme that would likely place the Constitution in mortal danger.
Imagine if the many millions of dollars spent by COS on a quixotic quest to call a second Constitutional Convention had been spent in providing state lawmakers with training on how to draft bills blocking the enforcement of unconstitutional acts of the federal government within their borders!
Finally, Meckler’s call to build a “conservative grassroots army, big enough, strong enough, deep enough, long enough with a long enough term perspective to save this country” is a rhetorical effort to distract people from the fact that nullification works, it works well, and it works now; and COS has not only failed to achieve its goals, but were its goals achieved, the Constitution we know now would be amended beyond recognition.
The John Birch Society and The New American have successfully led the fight against the calling of an Article V Convention. Our focus, however, is not on the future or on boasting about our victories. Our focus is on restoring sovereignty to the states and restoring the Constitution onto the foundational principles upon which it was established by our Founding Fathers.
If you’re committed to contributing significantly to the cause of the Constitution and joining with other like-minded patriots, seek out your local chapter of The John Birch Society and subscribe to The New American, the most reliable and readable constitutionalist magazine available.
