An Article V convention is in my opinion the most thoroughly boneheaded idea in American politics (which is saying a lot).

There is no way _at all_ to constrain the agenda _or_ the outcome per the current constitution. In particular you can’t say (afaik) “we are calling an article V convention solely on issue X.” The linked article describes this as the “runaway convention problem.”

If you are on the left, imagine the new constitution specifically forbidding abortion.

If you are on the right, imagine it specifically forbidding private gun ownership.

There is no way to prevent those outcomes because an Article V convention is effectively saying “start over again from scratch.”

Separately I think term limits for congressmen are a dumb idea too. It will make party organizations much stronger. For evidence on this, see Mexico where nearly every public office is term limited to a single term. Second, very few people actually want their own congressman term limited (unless you voted for the other guy). They want everyone else’s congressmen (or the junior senator from Texas) term limited.

I would not trust the present day to create a viable constitution. It would likely be dominated by whatever party is in charge to perpetuate their specific platform rather than to establish principle based rules.

The original constitution is really kind of amazing at how well it’s functioned. It has flaws, obviously, but seems really effective.

As the author well notes, a Constitutional Convention, unchecked and unregulated, could be means for disaster. We take for granted our Bill of Rights, on the daily. That said, luckily there's an entire process to follow to introduce and put into law any legislation.

I was myself unaware of Article V. The speed at which the internet went from STOP SOPA to DEPLATFORM AND CENSOR EVERYTHING startles me, and if that is any model, a Constitutional Convention would likely repeal every last semblance of freedom, and the ability to defend it, that we have.

Thanks for sharing this post.

For those interested, the current hub of this activity (AFAICT) is => https://conventionofstates.com/

The ship of state is not on a good course.

While the idea of Article V is indeed fraught, anyone who thinks a lesser remedy obtains places excessive face in leaky vessels, IMO.

For this audience, consider the problem as a badly needed refactor. Whereas there were originally local, state, and federal government levels in addition to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, the last century has seen collapse.

We're close to a unitary executive atop a Deep State, with a hollow congress/judiciary rubber-stamping the fiats.

A proper Article V plan would redistribute power, not wealth, and be fully sorted and in the can ahead of any convention. Such a meeting should be called to rubber-stamp said plan and preclude these runaway convention fears.

The more technically-minded audience of this site should be instrumental in delivering a plan that can't be commandeered (as easily) by the usual pencil necks.

For example: putting all of the legislation in a public git repo that anyone can read, hit with AI, and track what these congresscritters are getting up to, especially who is making the commits (!), which would obviously be people who stand for election.

If Prohibition could be passed in the USA, anything can be passed through the Convention IMO.

I’m very worried about the US turning into a one-party theocracy. The actual institutional norms have been violated and the path has been laid. A very large portion of the country supports an authoritarian Christian theocracy as the future of America and it is terrifying. They are concentrated in smaller states that give these extreme voices outsized power in our current constitutional structure. I worry for the future.

A constitutional convention right now would only serve the interests of hostile foreign powers. At best the US would be twiddling its thumbs while the world moves onward from it. The US would become something like a geographic average between a third world country and a first world country. At worst, the US looks weak enough for a hostile power to actually, successfully invade and occupy.

The runaway convention is a real problem, but what would be odds of each outcome? I can't imagine the Constitution would be replaced in its entirety, that would be difficult to implement. I also can't imagine contentious issues going strongly either way, that would probably also be difficult to pull off politically.

No, a constitutional convention isn't close, and, contrary to the suggestions in that article, no particular threat to established rights would be posed by the lack of procedural guidelines for such a convention because any Amendment proposed by a convention would still need a 3/4 of the states to ratify it.

I personally think this is a great idea as a Constitutional Convention will be a free-for-all with no rules. We can then start from scratch on U.S. Constitution 2.0.

With a new codebase, we can do a total rewrite, getting rid of bad lines, and not having to have that explicit patch for slavery to be included during every recompile. We can also clean up some dumb redundant code like the 18th and 21st Amendments. Should have been done years ago.

And given we're a democracy, we should all vote yes/no for the new Constitution. I know where the majority of the people in this country stand on the issues (81 million to 74 million during the last presidential election) so I'm fine with this.

> Article V allows the states to call a Constitutional Convention if two-thirds (or 34) of 50 states submit a resolution proposing an amendment on one or many topics (or just a general call for convention without proposing a specific topic). Amendments proposed during a Constitutional Convention must also be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Since the first Constitutional Convention, Congress has proposed 33 constitutional amendments and 27 have been ratified.

In other words, it’s highly unlikely anything would pass a convention of states. That said, we are getting close given the dramatic over reach by the federal government

(2019)