Unlike her usual style and scholarship, Rachel Maddow used her show to ridicule those talking loudly about the need for some constitutional amendments. But she missed a big opportunity to inform the public about the unused Article V convention option. by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
On her August 9 show on MSNBC Rachel Maddow went for an easy attack on those seeking government reforms through constitutional amendments but also missed a big opportunity to inform and educate her audience and millions more Americans.
She ridiculed those, especially Republican candidates and congressmen, making a big point of using constitutional amendments as a way to build public support for themselves. Her basic point was that amending the constitution is really, really hard. It is so difficult that the public should not take this political rhetoric very seriously as a practical way to change law.
It is certainly true that getting amendments proposed by Congress and then ratified by three-quarters of the states is a very difficult process, especially for amendments that would directly attack the many ways our government is made corrupt and dysfunctional. Congress and the many special interests on the right and left want to preserve the current system that they have learned to manipulate so well.
Where Maddow went wrong and showed her intellectual and journalistic laziness was failing to inform her audience that the Constitution provides another path to obtaining constitutional amendments. The Founders anticipated the day when the American public might lose trust and confidence in the federal government. With only 11 percent of people having confidence in Congress that day has certainly arrived. Included in Article V of the Constitution is the option of a convention of state delegates that would have the same constitutional power to propose amendments that would also have to be ratified by the states.
The only requirement for a convention is that two-thirds of the states ask for one. What Maddow obviously does not know is that there have been over 700 state applications from all 50 states and that Congress has for a long time ignored them. They can be examined on the website of Friends of the Article V Convention, the national, nonpartisan group working to get the first convention. Known for her ability to articulate so well her rage about what ails the nation, Maddow missed a huge opportunity to point out that the rule of law has been abused by Congress because they fear constitutional amendments that would truly reform the government system.
There is of course no reason to be against amending the Constitution. The Founders correctly anticipated the need to amend it. Those Americans that profess love and respect for the Constitution but then argue against amending it or against using the Article V convention option are nothing less than constitutional hypocrites.
To regain her journalistic integrity, Maddow should do another segment that focuses on the Article V convention option and how so many special interests have fought hard against using it. It is, after all, a form of direct democracy that Americans have a constitutional right to use to get reforms that our corrupt Congress will never take seriously. What she made a laughing matter of should be taken much more seriously. The issue should not be about specific amendments but about the process of considering and obtaining them. Journalistic integrity demands that Maddow do some homework and correct the situation, otherwise she is no better than so many other pundits that routinely present false and misleading information on their shows. If she learns the history of the convention option she will discover that some of the most respected people in American history favored use of the convention option. Serious consideration of constitutional amendments should not be a partisan issue, but rather what good citizenship is all about.
Get to work Rachel.
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Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: August 11, 2010 05:09:16 PM
Hi Joel,
So, how is your candidate doing? You must be pushing to get a pro-Article V convention representative elected in your district, right? You must realize that most folks who are elected to Congress think the system is working just fine. They got elected didn't they? Things are going well for them and the system is working for them. Besides, as George Burns used to say, "I can't die, I'm booked." That's the same attitude Congress has towards the USA. It's booked. There's business to attend to. Governments to topple, non-Christians to slaughter, there's no time to take a break for a silly convention that might delay things that the USA is booked for.
You also must realize you can't elect a pro-war, big government liberal or statist/neocon then have that person change their stripes AFTER the elections, right? All the work is done prior to the general elections. Candidates are vetted and groomed by participating party members. Just yesterday we had our Colorado primaries. It was a good day for limited government conservatives because of all the work we have done over the past several months to promote them and get them on the ballot.
Since you are so invested in seeing this convention happen I assume you must be promoting candidates who will represent your views in congress, right? So, how's your candidate doing?
-Jahfre Fire Eater
Posted By: Logical Premise
Date: August 11, 2010 10:52:02 PM
Poor form, Jahfre. Don't expect the poor man to conform to logic.
And really, seriously? Rachel Maddow is a member of Government First -- you *really* expected her to go on about the Article V conventions?
If we take things with a rational viewpoint, what we are left with is that there are a ton of people who feel an Article V would be a "great thing" and that there are ten thousand ideas about what such a convention would address. I suspect many of you fail to consider the consequences of an Article V hijacked by people like, well, me.
Posted By: bricer
Date: August 11, 2010 11:02:55 PM
Maddow is a classic lefty poser who spins the propaganda of the Democratic party. She'll rant 24/7about right wing evildoings but is mute when it comes to calling out Democrats. At most, we get tepid criticism and excuse making. Like her fellow posers, she suppresses any real dissent. Ted Rall, Chris Floyd, Max Keiser, Ray McGovern, Ralph Nader, anyone who writes on Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, and Black Agenda Report are absent from her guest Rolodex. She deserves not one ounce of compliments with regards to her journalism skills. People like Maddow are the reason we have no true left political power. Instead of holding politicians of any stripe accountable and informing the public on the real who/what/why of an issue, Maddow and company abet the high crimes and misdemeanors of their Democratic puppet masters by spewing masters' propaganda, lies, and misinformation.
