I do not have the time or energy to pick apart and refute Walker’s entire essay, but for the record, I will site a few notables:
1) Walker states that the ALEC Handbook is “Secret.” It is not, and it can be read and downloaded at: www.alec.org/handbook. This is a terrific handbook, required reading for state legislators or anyone who wants to help their state regain and exercise their unused Constitutional Article V authority to propose needed amendments, such as a BBA or congressional term limits.
2) Walker states that Constitutional Scholar and retired Law Professor Robert G. Natelson’s 2010 Goldwater paper was written without once referencing the actual 1787 Convention proceeding vis-à-vis the amendment process. In fact, Natelson’s Goldwater paper references the convention proceedings at least 15 times, including those pertaining to the amendments process.
3) Walker states “Natelson wants a convention ruled by smoke filled rooms setting up, not as he contends, a convention free of the worries of a runaway convention but an actual runaway convention.” I personally know and highly admire Robert Natelson, and I am deeply concerned and puzzled why Walker felt the need to publicly demean Natelson’s character, research and scholarship. Unfortunately, if Walker has something meaningful to offer in his essay, it is completely lost to his negativity and incessant sniping. This essay is nothing more than a mean spirited smear job, pure and simple, and Walker owes Natelson and the thousands of ALEC members an apology.
Natelson is a true American patriot who has done some of the most important historic research on Article V and the Founding Era conventions since Russell L. Caplan wrote Constitutional Brinkmanship, including Natelson’s most recent documentation of the minutes from the 12 Founding Era interstate conventions, including the previously only-hypothesized Yorktown Convention.
The state’s use of Article V to propose amendments is but one tool at our disposal, but if used wisely and correctly by the people and states, it has the potential to transform our nation, returning it back to the Constitutional Republic envisioned by our Founders. Natelson and ALEC have created an invaluable, historically grounded Article V handbook that gives our state legislators a historic overview and valuable step-by-step instructions that are sorely needed in order to correctly use their Constitutional authority to propose important amendments that will reform and restrain our federal government.
Instead of helping us regain our lost Federalism and the ideal of government by consent of the governed, Walker’s essay only muddies the waters, pitting patriot against patriot. My black Labs and I agree: far too much barking, and not nearly enough wagging.
Robert J. Thorpe is Co-founder of the Balanced Budget Amendment Taskforce and an Arizona Tea Party Vice President. Thorpe is a former UCLA Ext. instructor, a Constitutional lecturer, researcher and author of “Reclaim Liberty: 3-Step Plan for Restoring our Constitutional Government”. Thorpe is a member of a national team of Constitutional scholars, academics, experts, and lawmakers who volunteer their time assisting state legislators by promoting Constitutional education, solutions, and several important amendments including a federal Balanced Budget Amendment.
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