Thread by @DempseyTwo

I don’t want to oversell it, but what you are about to read may be the most important thread I have written. We need to talk about Article 5…No, not NATO…
🧵👇🏻

Most people associate Article 5 with NATO. Rightly so. It’s a big deal. It’s the one that basically says an attack on one, is an attack on all and it was invoked after the 9/11 attacks. But we’re not going to be talking about that Article 5 today.

We are going to be talking about Article 5 of the US Constitution that sets forth the procedures to amend the Constitution. We specifically need to understand the part about 2/3 of State legislatures having the ability to force Congress to call a convention to propose amendments.

Elected officials at the federal level (i.e. US Congress) can get together and call for amendments to the Constitution as well. They’ll pass so long as they have the votes of 2/3s of members present. This is how all 27 amendments so far have been made.

The last time an amendment was made, it had to do with pay for Members of Congress, and was made in 1992.

Before we begin, we need to understand how important amendments are.

Amendments are a BFD. Each one re-writes the Constitution. They make more clear who we are as a country. They sit atop everything. They *are* the Constitution. The job of a Supreme Court Justice is to interpret them and make rulings in accordance with them.

That 👆🏻should be enough foundation for our purposes. Constitutional lawyers and scholars can clean that up as they see fit.
Here is a link…

constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/a…

As I said, all 27 amendments thus far have been done via introduction by a Member of Congress and 2/3 of both House and Senate approval. Once that occurs, 3/4 of the States (38) then have to ratify (agree to) that amendment. This part of the process is super important…

Right now there are 33 amendments that have been approved via Congress. But Joe, the Constitution has only been amended 27 times…The reason for this is because not enough States have ratified those other amendments.

An example of an unratified amendment is the Equal Rights Amendment. Yes…there are States that have refused to ratify an amendment to our Constitution that would guarantee Equal Rights to the women of America (📌1). The Equal Rights amendment was approved in 1972.

Who could be opposed to an Amendment that guarantees equal rights in a country that basically gains its self esteem on telling everyone how all here are treated equally?

Phyllis Schlafly is not advocating against earned run average.

npr.org/sections/thetw…

But, this thread is about Article 5 and specifically the process used to force Congress to call a convention to propose amendments. Amending the Constitution is a difficult process. It should be. We’re changing the country when we make an amendment. It’s a big deal.

The path to a constitutional convention* that leads through the State Legislatures themselves, has never successfully yielded an amendment.

*I’ll call it a constitutional convention, maybe technically called something else like Convention of States, I don’t know, but you get it.

The path through the State legislatures to an amendment seems to me to be the harder of the two. Think of it. Two thirds of the States (34) would have to agree to hold a constitutional convention where amendments could be proposed.

They do this by passing resolutions to hold a convention. 34 States need to pass bills. An elected official offers a bill, it passes the state legislature, and is signed by a Governor. Each local election builds the infrastructure necessary to pass laws.

So what have we built?

This map is the reason for this thread. It shows that there are currently 19 States who have already passed resolutions calling for a Constitutional Convention to propose amendments.

This is a map that shows the States with a Trifecta of single party leadership. That is to say the State’s House, Senate and Governor are all of the same party. There are currently 22 States with a Republican trifecta. That is 16 away from the 38 needed to ratify amendments.

Joe, 16 States is a lot. Never gonna happen.

Fair…but go back and count the colors on the first map again. If you don’t want to, there are currently *34* States that either have already agreed, agreed in at least one chamber of the legislature, or are talking about it now!

Every State is a swing State when looked at through this lens! Colorado, Nevada, Ohio and Michigan would be enough for Republicans to ratify any amendment they wanted!
Amendment 28 - Abortion is prohibited.
Amendment 29 - Gay Marriage is prohibited.

If enough Republican led State Legislatures wanted to, they could make anything “legal”.
Vote didn’t come out like you wanted?
Amendment 30 - Only Republicans can hold office.
CRT frighten you?
Amendment 31 - No Public Schools.

Amendment 32 - In part repeals portions of Amendment 1 in that the official religion of the US will henceforth be Christianity.

Amendment 33 - repeals Amendment 13….you see where this is headed.

We will lose our democracy because we fail imagination.

Geez Joe, get a grip.

I know, I know…there would have to be a dedicated group who worked specifically toward a goal like getting enough States to even have enough votes for a convention to make changes to the Constitution, and no one would ever do that…

Right?

Meet Convention of States Action.

See if any maps or Endorsers are familiar to you (📌2).
conventionofstates.com

It’s strange how some of these threads come into being. In reading through the January 6th Committee’s deposition documents, there is mention of a ‘coalition’ who were involved in putting on the rally on Jan 6th. Coalition is mentioned in Carolyn Wren and Amy Kremer’s testimony.

Ali Alexander, pictured below, also used this ‘coalition’ term in his testimony, and I came across this in the Taylor Budowich depo. He was sort of in-between Wren and Katrina Pierson from the WH. He says the ‘coalition’ included the Tea Party Patriots. [record scratch]

Would that be the same Tea Party Patriots founded by Mark Meckler? The same Mark Meckler who also founded the Convention of States Action who produced that map of the potentially 34 States who would be willing to call for amendments to the Constitution?
👇🏻🤦🏼‍♂️

And here is just a sample of those endorsing this project. Mark Meadows who received texts from Ginni Thomas about the 2020 election raised a few eyebrows. Ken Blackwell who had suggested Ken Klukowski and John Eastman brief VP Pence in an email broadcast by the J6C…

They’re even endorsed by the president of the Schlafly Eagles, Ed Martin, who not only posted that picture of Ali Alexander on the 6th, but when the J6C had questions for him, had this to say…

Wait, Schlafly Eagles? Schlafly…sounds familiar…

Oh right…🗣️🎙️the still unratified EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT FROM 1972!

Please understand they are determined, patient, well-funded, and will not stop until they have our democracy.

I can’t stress enough how important local elections are. They show just how close each of us is to changing this country. With our vote, we could be bringing about Constitutional amendments that enshrine our values, or eradicate our rights.

They may be using the democratic process, but I can assure you this ends with the democracy dead and us living under their rule. Follow the money. Vote in local elections. Save our democracy.
Reporters…report.

The Convention of States Action website shows 44 ‘Endorsers’.
11 appear on the whiteboard.
5 have CPI ties
4 voted against election certification
1 is chairman of Conservative Partnership Institute.
Finally, John Eastman sits on their legal board.

📌1 was about the Equal Rights Act as it pertained to women. Perhaps we should amend that to include people of color, the indigenous, gay people, disabled people, trans people, sick people, hungry people, all people.

People, we’ve got a lot of work to do.

The dominoes are falling against our democracy.

Gerrymander…suppress opposing voters…win State trifectas…remake the Constitution through amendments.

For anyone still reading this, thank you. I also just want to point out something that I think is important. Nowhere in this is trump. Do you see how trump was just a means to an end? They used him as much as he used others. He’s a pawn in *their* game.

They’ll find another.