Why won't this hero for liberty call for a convention?
Ron Paul Reality Check
| When critics of government won't honor a demand by all 50 states, it's disappointing. The author is a co-founder of Friends of the Article V Convention at www.foavc.org and can be reached through www.delusionaldemocracy.com. |
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
As self-professed champion of the Constitution, presidential candidate Ron Paul has missed a monumental opportunity to educate Americans about Congress violating their oath of office. Nor has he taken advantage of his 15 minutes of fame to promote the nation’s first-time use of what the Founders gave us -- the Article V convention option, an alternative to Congress proposing amendments (the only procedure used for 220 years). Support for using the Article V convention option should be a litmus test for any presidential candidate, which is reasonable considering that Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt supported it.
Paul has no problem in seeing the need for constitutional amendments. He has been a proponent of an amendment that would not allow children born in the USA from illegal parents to become citizens. How can a champion of the Constitution remain so silent on Congress’ refusal to honor over 500 applications from all 50 states for a convention that more than satisfies the one and only requirement in Article V?
Paul clearly recognizes the many failures of the federal government. Maybe as a member of Congress he too has been part of a long-standing refusal by Congress to obey Article V of the Constitution. Why don’t passionate Paul supporters see this inconsistency?
If passionate supporters of Paul would spend more time investigating all his congressional activities, they would find more to question. For example, he has routinely inserted earmarks for pork spending to make constituents in his district happy. Then he hides behind his votes against the spending bills containing his earmark spending items. But those earmarks remain in those spending bills passed by Congress.
Many have been for projects by the Army Corps of Engineers, many to funnel money to the Texas Department of Transportation (including one for repairs to the Galveston Trolley system), and one for Texas A&M University/Galveston Campus to convert the Texas Clipper for educational purposes; maybe this was the $30 million for the Texas Maritime Academy to refurbish a ship. And then there was the $8 million for the marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to pay for research into shrimp fishing. This year Paul has requested about $400 million worth of federal spending for his district -- not exactly consistent with Paul’s rhetoric on reducing federal spending and taxing.
Here is some irony: With our thoroughly corrupt and rigged political system, Ron Paul has absolutely zero chance of becoming the Republican presidential nominee, regardless of his high level of grassroots support. Odd then that Paul has not supported the one and only route to profoundly changing this awful political system. It is the method our Founders gave us with the Article V convention option. Indeed, his lack of support for using the Article V convention option seems to makes him a part of the political establishment, which is consistent with his recent announcement that if he does not get the Republican nomination he will not run as a third party candidate.
Anyone who studies the history of attempts to get the first Article V convention will learn that it has consistently been opposed by people and groups on the political left and right that are part of the nation’s elitist political status quo establishment. So here is Ron Paul, supposedly an honest non-elitist political maverick that does not fit into the political establishment, declining to back the use of the Article V convention option. Paul has had virtually no real impact on what evil Congress has done; what does he have to lose?
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Also see: Part III, The Trouble With Money and its Cure
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