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Is Congressman Ron Paul Really A Champion For The Constitution?

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has attracted surprising support. He calls himself a "champion for the Constitution." Just one problem - he has not taken a position on Congress obeying Article V of the Constitution and giving Americans the nation's first Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments.

Joel S. Hirschhorn
13/08/2007
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There are numerous reasons to admire Congressman Ron Paul, as I have for many years. Clearly he is running for president as a Republican, rather than a third party candidate, for the purpose of getting richly deserved media and public attention not available to those outside the two-party duopoly. He has proudly described himself as a champion of the Constitution. However, he is missing a major opportunity to demonstrate his courage and allegiance to our constitutional republic.

He has acknowledged the appropriateness of amending the Constitution. In fact, he introduced legislation for an amendment that would stop giving automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. He said: 'Our founders knew that unforeseen problems with our system of government would arise, and that’s precisely why they gave us a method for amending the Constitution. It’s time to rethink birthright citizenship by amending the 14th amendment."

Personally, I endorse this particular amendment. More important, however, I am disappointed that he has never latched on to the long history of Congress’ failure to honor and obey the part of Article V of the Constitution that gives Americans the right to a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution. The convention is an alternative to Congress proposing amendments. Interestingly, the particular amendment that Paul favors will probably never emerge from Congress, but might have a better chance through an Article V convention.

Why has Paul failed to acknowledge that Congress has ignored over 500 applications from state legislatures from all 50 states for an Article V convention? As a champion of the Constitution, surely he knows that the one and only requirement explicitly stated in Article V is that two-thirds of state legislatures ask for one. And surely he knows that Congress has never passed any law that expands or modifies this single explicit constitutional requirement. So, I ask: Why haa Paul remained silent on the Article V issue?

If he does not believe that Congress should honor Article V’s provision for a convention, why not say so publicly? If he believes that it should never be used, then why not call for an amendment to delete it from our Constitution?

I urge Congressman Paul, as a champion of the Constitution, to not behave like other members of Congress and silently veto a crucial part of the Constitution that the Framers wisely gave us. They anticipated that eventually Americans could lose confidence in the federal government. Paul clearly has earned the respect and support of millions of Americans because he objects to so many policies and actions of the federal government. Thus, Paul, more than virtually any other member of Congress, should appreciate the wisdom of the Framers in giving us the Article V convention option.

I beg him to speak up and demonstrate just how much of a champion of the Constitution he really is by bringing national attention to the Article V convention issue and supporting its use. As a founder of Friends of the Article V Convention I invite Paul to play a leading role in giving the United States of America its first Article V convention.

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Joel S. Hirschhorn is a founder of Friends of the Article V Convention and the author of Delusional Democracy, www.delusionaldemocracy.com.

Copyright © 2007 Joel Hirschhorn

Comments

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Saturday 10 November 2007 3:36:33 pm

According to this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

There have only been 22 requests in total (spanning from 1788 to 1929) for a general convention. The other 500-some odd requests have been specific to particular issues, often with the full text of the proposed amendments in the text of the request. So while 10 states may issue requests on one issue, and 25 other states issue requests on different issues, they are not counted together because they are not requesting the same thing. This is likely why no convention has yet occurred.

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