Friends Of the Article V Convention

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How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by Daniel Summars - Sunday, 22 July 2007, 10:04 PM
 
From FOAVC Member Kelly Gerling:
How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
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Picture of Daniel Summars
Re: How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by Daniel Summars - Sunday, 22 November 2009, 02:05 PM
 

Here's a few ideas:

  • Encourage members to recruit more members; 
  • Raise funds for press releases, TV info-ads, magazines, etc. (education)
  • Encourage members to Call/Write/FAX/E-Mail their Congress persons and ask them what their position is on our Constitutional right to an Article V Convention?
  • Encourage members to Call/Write/FAX/E-Mail their state legislatures and ask them what their position is on our Constitutional right to an Article V Convention?
  • Encourage members to visit blogs and discussion forums and let people know Article V of the Constitution is being violated, and has been for decades;
  • Education and Awareness:
    • educate voters about the 750+ applications by all 50 states that is far in excess of the two-thirds of all states required;
    • educate voters about the nation's pressing problems growing in number and severity because of Congress' refusal to address any badly-needed common-sense reforms and amendments (due to obvious conflict of interest);
    • educate voters about what the painful consequences may be if we allow these Constitutional violations to continue;  educate voters about the economic impacts of so much fiscal and moral bankruptcy; another Great Depression is not that far fetched as many pressing problems are allowed to grow in number and severity;
    • educate voters about the importance of education itself, transparency (simplify things that have been over-complicated to facilitate abuses), and accountability (enforce the existing laws);
    • educate voters about human psychology and the importance of understanding certain negative human tendencies (e.g. seeking prosperity and security with the least pain and effort; i.e. short-term selfishness versus educated, long-term, enlightened self-interest) so that the importance of education, transparency, and accountability are thoroughly understood;
    • educate voters to stop blindly pulling the party-lever, stop wallowing in the distracting partisan-warfare, and stop being seduced into the blame-game and less substantive issues that some politicians love to fuel;
    • educate voters to stop rewarding and re-electing irresponsible incumbent politicians;  some voters think the last election of 7-Nov-2007 was a big wake-up call to Congress; it wasn't since Congress has enjoyed a cu$hy 85% to 90% re-election rate since 1996;
    • educate voters to stop voting for the candidate that merely spends the most money (which is 90% of the time);
    • educate voters to stop throwing money at the politicians, because it is a waste of money, because a very tiny 0.15% of all 200 million eligible voters make 83% of all federal campaign donations (of $200+ totalling $2.0 billion of $2.4 billion in 2004); the remaining 99.85% of all 200 million elibigle voters don't stand a chance against that sort of abuse of vast wealth;
  • Stop repeat offenders!
    Don't re-elect them!
    Our vote is the last thing voters have to peacefully force government to become more responsible and accountable.
    So, please don't squander it. 
    Repeatedly rewarding irresponsible incumbent politicians empowers them to grow more powerful and difficult to unseat.  And look at all the unfair advantages they are giving to themselves.
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Re: How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by - Monday, 6 August 2007, 01:57 PM
 

Daniel, I don't disagree with any of those ideas. I'd add that we need to recognize that 99.9 percent of the population has no idea what is in Article V. And 99.99999 percent have no idea that 567 applications have been sent in by 50 states to have a convention to fix our Constitution's flaws--flaws that result in a vast gap between governmental public policy and citizen public opinion.

A first step to making the idea that we can have a constitutional convention is to get actual copies of the 567 applications and link them to the FOAVC summary section. That way anyone can verify that the conditions for a convention have been met. And if Congress won't call one, besides public pressure, there is another sure way to get it--one dependent on those actual application copies--that is, to get two-thirds of the State legislatures to re-submit an application simultaneously.

After the 2008 election, that is an idea that can bear fruit and grow, much like the current inititiative to bypass the Electoral College is growing now. (See www.fairvote.org)

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Re: How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by Daniel Summars - Friday, 20 November 2009, 08:31 AM
 
Mr. Kelly Gerling,

Yes, I've seen FairVote.org.  Their mission is honorable, and believe those are good goals:

From FairVote.org:  A constitutionally protected right to vote, direct election of the president, instant runoff voting for executive elections and proportional voting for legislative elections. As a reform catalyst, we develop and promote practical strategies to improve elections for local, state and national leaders.

As for actual copies of all 750+ applications, that may prove [was] difficult. There is evidence of those applications, but the federal government, whose duty it is to keep records of those applications, may have misplaced and/or lost some of them.  How convenient, eh?

However, enough still exist. Yes, the states should re-submit all of their applications again (simultaneously).  That is why it is important to contact our state legislatures too, because the federal politicians are very unlikely (as history has already shown us) to call an Article V Convention.  We need everyone's help, because politicians will ignore questions and requests from voters outside of their state or district.
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Re: How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by - Thursday, 19 November 2009, 01:49 PM
 

As corny and faddish as it sounds, a facebook group for Article V would go a long way to informing people.

It wouldn't necessarily educate them, but you easily put a link in to this sight for those that are interested.

By having it on facebook it is seen by your "Friends" and you can invite like minded people to look into it.

I think this would be a good way to get the word out, and generate interest.

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Re: How can FOAVC plan to grow and fulfull its mission?
by Michael Bindner - Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 12:42 PM
 

Use the online tool by Judge Brennan and get enough people involved so that it is forced to aggregate people by congressional district.  To have a real chance of success, we need to identify a majority of congressional districts in 38 states (for ratification purposes) and have more activists engaged than the partisan committees of the majority party (of course, we could use some of the same activists - depending on the party).

We also need proposals that stand out as being worthy of a convention.  In other words, big ideas.  Contrary to popular belief in these circles - damaging equal protection rights of minorities (gays, immigrants, women) is not a worthy goal or a big idea  - so we need to tread lightly when dealing with amendments regarding the courts.  Regional government, with regional VPs appointing judges at the District and Appeallate levels and a "regional seat" for each region on a 7 member SCOTUS (with the chief selected by the membership without replacement), is probably as close as we can get to judicial reform.  I wouldn't mess with lifetime tenure too much.  Indeed, imposing tenure may mean older judges, not younger.

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