Convention of States: The GOP’s Plan to Enshrine Project 2025 in the Constitution

1. Amending the Constitution
   1. Article V of the Constitution
   2. Article V
   3. The Equal Rights Amendment
2. The Convention of States Project
3. Contact Your State Legislators
   1. Image Attribution

The Republicans really are coming for our democracy. While Il Dunce takes a wrecking ball to our institutions and norms, the party is quietly preparing the way to create their very own Frankenstein monster by grafting Project 2025 onto our Constitution, transforming our democracy into a single-party pseudo-democratic minority-rule autocracy just like they have in Russia. And, if we aren’t prepared to stop them, we really will be living in the #GOPDystopia.

The Republican Party’s war on our way of life started long before Trump came along. He’s just a means to an end for them. It is why the tolerate his grift and corruption and his shambolic bumbling attempts “lead” and “govern..” They’ve been sitting on this egg like some mangey gamey mother hen since at least Reagan’s time. I’ll give them this much, they can play the long game. Something the Democrats simply can’t do.

Here’s the long and the short of it: The Republican Party are trying to create an Article V Convention of States to amend, i.e. rewrite, the Constitution. More about their exact plans in a moment, let’s look at Article V and the mechanics of amending the Constitution, first.

Amending the Constitution

Article V of the Constitution

Article V is the section of the Constitution that addresses the ways the document can be changed or amended. Those of us who can use Google know that there have been 27 amendments to Constitution already. The first ten are known as the Bill of Rights and were slapped on to the document at the very beginning, so the remaining seventeen have been added since then.

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

The Equal Rights Amendment

We all remember the ERA, right? The Equal Rights Amendment that would make men and women equal in the eyes of the Constitution? Okay, I’m old. But, remembering the ERA is instructive because it illustrates just how difficult it is to amend the Constitution — there is some comfort in that.

Article V has two ginormous thresholds that have to be met. First, two-thirds of Congress or the states have to approve an amendment. There are 435 representatives in the House, so an amendment would need 290 votes in the House and sixty-six votes in the Senate. Nearly impossible in this modern era of politics. Or two-thirds of the states to call for a convention (two-thirds of 50 is 33.33 or 34, rounding up). Given the gerrymandering efforts of the Republicans to secure permanent majorities in state legislatures, this goal is a little easier met.

Second, three-fourths of the state legislatures or state conventions have to approve of the amendment. Three-fourths of fifty is thirty-eight. That’s a little harder to do.

The ERA was written in 1923! It made the two-thirds threshold in 1972, but it only did it with a deadline to reach the three-fourths requirement by 1979, later extended to 1982. It only missed that deadline by 38 years when the state legislatures of Virginia approved of it in 2020/

In spite of the difficulty, the Republicans think they have a real shot at ti… And they do.

The Convention of States Project

In 2013 Michael Farris and Robert Natelson hatched themselves an idea born of the grassroots Tea Party objection to America having a Black president. They would fix the US government by addressing three issues and started the Article V Convention of States Project. See if their three issues don’t sound familiar, i.e. like Project 2025, and like they could really warp the Constitution into something less than a liberal democracy:

• LIMITING FEDERAL POWER: The old bugabear of conservatives. The federal government is going to make us uphold the aspirations of the Constitution that all people are created equal! No conservative wants to treat People of Color or women as equals.
• FISCAL RESTRAINT: Another trope of the right. The tax and spend liberals with all their social safety nets are going to bankrupt us. Instead lets cut taxes, run the debt up to the troposphere, and transfer as much middle class wealth as possible tot he one percent before the next great recession hits. Because the Republicans have been the party of fiscal responsibility since Reagan. If you want trickle down economics to be mandated by the Constitution, you’re found your people.
• TERM LIMITS: I know term limits is a popular idea on the left and right because incumbency confers such a steep advantage on candidates, but really it is just shorthand for we want an electorate that doesn’t have to pay attention to what their elected officials are doing. Think about it like this way, would you have wanted Nancy Pelosi term limited out of the House? First elected in 1987, it took twenty years before she was made Speaker. We don’t need term limits, we need an involved electorate.

This is what they say they will limit the convention to, but (a) when the fuck was the last time a conservative ever let a promise, the truth, or a fact get between them and a goal that they had? Seriously, do you believe them? Hell no. And (b) once the convention gets started anyone can propose amendments. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, how long did it take for states to begin restricting abortions again? When the VRA was gutted, how long did it take them to start diluting the Black and Brown vote? You really think they aren’t prepared for this? They keep holding simulations of the convention like they were in the Model United Nations.

Kansas just became the twentieth state to pass the legislation calling for the Convention. It is coming before the Iowa legislature next. Let’s look at their map. Please note that this map was found using a Creative Commons search on Wikimedia. It wasn’t up to date, so I used my amazing tech skills to update it.

As can be seen, there have been some changes to the map. Unfortunately the legend didn’t come through:

• GREEN: The states that have passed the CoS resolution. They should number twenty.
• YELLOW: States that have passed it one chamber.
• BLUE: States that have legislation active this year.
• GRAY: States that have not passed or are not considering the resolution.

The keen observer will note some changes to the colors on the map. Some of the states have gone from BLUE (active legislation) to GRAY (not considering the resolution). They did not pass the legislation when it was before them. Some states have gone from YELLOW (passed in one chamber) to GRAY (not considering the resolution), the resolution is no longer valid after passing the chamber.YELLOW to BLUE, it lapsed from the last legislative session and it has been reintroduced. And from GREEN (passed the resolution) to GRAY (not considering the resolution), they rescended the resolution?

Those of us who can count will note that fifteen state legislatures are considering the resolution this session, and twenty plus fifteen is thirty-five which is one more than the magic number. Considering that its taken them thirteen years to get to twenty, it is unlikely that we’ll see a spat of passes this year. Also, some of those states have either Democratic majorities in one chamber or the other or a Democratic governor, so its unlikely to pass.

Contact Your State Legislators

While we are not in immediate danger right now, this is nothing to sleep on. It also is a huge wake up call for voting in your local elections, especially your state legislatures. And, if you live in a state that is currently colored BLUE or YELLOW call your state legislator and tell them to vote no on this resolution.

We also need to be thinking about which amendments we would like to make to the Constitution. It is clear that we’re going to need a big overhaul to our system that will explicitly codify norms and establish a truly independent investigatory body to enforce those newly codified norms. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

Image Attribution

This image was found on Nara & DVDs Public Domain Archive using a Creative Commons license search..