Think Trump Will Be Bad? How About Rewriting The Constitution

If a Trump presidency doesn’t scare you enough. If Republicans controlling all three branches of government doesn’t scare you even more. If a right-wing Supreme Court for the next generation or two does not truly frighten you. Then you are a calmer person than I. But this tidbit from Charles Pierce should really scare you to death. The Republican party now has total control in 33 state legislatures. The number of state legislatures needed to call a Constitutional Convention under Article V of the Constitution is 34. They need just one more. As Pierce and many other constitutional scholars point out, once a Constitutional Convention is called, we have absolutely no idea what new constitutional order could emerge from that. The idea of a Constitutional Convention has been bandied about on the right for decades. And, although proponents say they can limit what items the convention can discuss, many other constitutional scholars believe that once that Pandora’s box has been opened, it can not be closed. You can imagine every crackpot right wing idea will be brought forth and we could very well end up with a national government that does nothing more than provide for the national defense, taking us back to the 19th century, and devolve even more power to the smaller rural states and make our country even more undemocratic. Be very afraid.