Convention of the States: Refuting Alabama’s COS Video

Even though Alabama has applied to Congress to call a Convention, people are using this video to justify a “Convention of the States”. A Convention of the States does not exist within Article V of the U.S. Constitution and this video is riddled with misconceptions:

0:39 – Article V does not give “state legislators the authority to call a convention, or bypasses federal legislators to amend the Constitution.” State legislators have no such authority to call a convention.

1:14 – This adds additional language to the Amendment distorting its meaning. The video states “call a convention of the States upon retrieval of applications from 2/3 of the STATE LEGISLATORS.” Congress calls a “Convention to propose Amendments.” Article V gives no such authority to the states. Just as the video claims to bypass the federal government, state legislators can be bypassed by state ratifying conventions.

1:24 – The Delegates are not “chosen by the legislatures of the states attend the convention”. State legislatures do no such thing. Once the required applications are received, Congress calls a convention of the people, not the states.

1:36 – Amendments may not be proposed at the convention, we do not know the rules of the convention, so this is another misconception.

2:14 – Convention delegates are bound to their state legislatures. Where does this rule come from? What if Virginia loses their delegate, that just means Virginia is not represented at the convention.

2:46 – The states do not get authority over the national government. A convention is “by the people.” not the states.

3:01 – Abraham Lincoln’s quote “…the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves.” …the People themselves.

The freedoms we enjoy are from 226 years of trial and error of a culture established under our current U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Don’t press the reset button. We fought in a Civil War because of the deficiencies of our Constitution. Our constitutional republic established a government that protects the individual to develop and innovate outside the mob.

Proponents of a Convention of the States are looking for a quick fix using state politics to fix national politics…while state and local government’s are just as guilty of infringing on the people’s rights as the federal government.

This video has many misconceptions. A Convention doesn’t need to “Runaway”, just having a convention is dangerous.

Our Constitution originated with slavery at the state level. …and we fought a war over it. The Industrial Revolution brought mining towns. Let’s learn from U.S. History and work together, rather than establish a dictatorship.