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Republicans' next big play is rewriting the Constitution. And they're willing to play the long game to win: state legislatures

ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,082
www.businessinsider.com

Republicans' next big play is to 'scare the hell out of Washington' by rewriting the Constitution. And they're willing to play the long game to win.

Conservative activists are making steady progress toward convening a never-before-accomplished convention that could reshape the Constitution.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

Long-short: they can call a constitutional convention if they secure enough state legislatures.

It would become a conservative nation.

And the transformation, Santorum said, culminates with an unprecedented event: a first-of-its-kind convention to rewrite the Constitution.

"You take this grenade and you pull the pin, you've got a live piece of ammo in your hands,"
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The second method — never before accomplished — involves two-thirds of US states to call a convention. The power to call for a convention belongs solely to state legislatures, who would pass and ratify amendments without a governor's signature, Congress' intervention, or any input from the president.
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What's new now is the ever-evolving power coupling of a corporation-backed ideological juggernaut led by ALEC, a nonprofit organization with close ties to large tobacco and drug companies, and a determined Republican Party increasingly dominating many of the nation's 50 statehouses.

If they were successful, a constitutional convention led by conservatives could trigger sweeping changes to the Constitution.
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Their goals include gutting federal environmental standards, nixing nationwide education requirements, and creating an incredibly high threshold for Washington, DC, or a territory to earn statehood. Some would like to make it difficult, if not impossible, for someone — National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, for example — to work for decades within the federal government.
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And this is how they've been doing it:

The GOP spent decades investing in control of state legislatures through well-funded and resourced groups like the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has spent tens of millions over the last few decades locking down GOP control of state legislatures, statewide offices, and judgeships.

Those sustained investments have secured GOP dominance in state legislatures for a generation — and guarantee the GOP would also have the upper hand in a convention.

A new report by the Center for Media and Democracy first shared with Insider finds that Republicans would control at least 27 and up to 31 out of 50 delegations to a convention, based on delegate selection processes in applications passed thus far.
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Rats

Rats

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,112
Coincidentally this thought crossed my mind this morning. If the GOP wants to make sweeping Constitutional changes, they're much better positioned for it than we are.

True tyranny of the minority.
 
Surakian

Surakian

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
10,867
Ah, America is fucked then. Cool cool cool.

ZeroMaverick said:
This will surely incite violence.
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They would love any reason to shoot down the opposition. They've planned it out well. They all have a sick reverence for guns and no morals so they have no qualms about using them against people. Loyal idiots who would actually pull the trigger.

Rewriting the constitution would give them everything they want.
 
Freezasaurus

Freezasaurus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,000
I live about 6 hours from the Canadian border. I'll be among the first refugees from the US as soon as they do this.
 
OP
OP
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,082
Cat Party said:
lmao seriously

They've already secured minority rule for a lot of this country. Why would they need to rewrite the rules?
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Because they fear even that's in trouble if D.C. or Puerto Rico become states, or Biden keeps signing legislation that actually helps us make things in America, or if voting rights groups successfully fight back against gerrymandering, or if Democrats keep pumping judges into the judiciary to counteract Senate Republicans' slimy tactics.
 
Temascos

Temascos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,519
I honestly wonder why after the success in 2008 did the Democrats not stick with the "50 state strategy" that seemed to be working for them. A whole lot of this could have been prevented with some foresight after the GOP went full racist with the Tea Party stuff.
 
i hate cheaters

i hate cheaters

Member
Feb 16, 2018
2,685
daily reminder that states as political units is a mistake

anything that makes wyoming as powerful as california needs to be deleted
 
OP
OP
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,082
Temascos said:
I honestly wonder why after the success in 2008 did the Democrats not stick with the "50 state strategy" that seemed to be working for them. A whole lot of this could have been prevented with some foresight after the GOP went full racist with the Tea Party stuff.
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A lot of people still fought against the 50 state strategy. Even after winning in 2006, people like James Carville thought they could have won more seats if Dean and the DNC didn't use money building up the party in states and instead transferred it to close races. Paul Begala also was not a fan.

They have no sense of the long game.
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
20,694
Okay.

We know the plan. They've said what they want to do.

Surely our elected representatives will take this seriously and make it so that this is nearly impossible for Republicans to achieve.

Surely.
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,775
> nixing nationwide education requirements

this is how you kill a country literally.
 
Freezasaurus

Freezasaurus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
57,000
Autumn said:
It will be the end. Probably a break up of states.
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d6rakel2ezyz.png
 
mreddie

mreddie

Member
Oct 26, 2017
44,116
Divided States of America!

Of course the GOP are flat out saying their plan out loud, no one learned about RVW until the deed was done.
 
More_Badass

More_Badass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,623
WereSalamander said:
If things culminate into this then surely urban states will secede and things could devolve into civil war.
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Sadly I think we're way past that. Part of the nation will protest, part of the nation is brainwashed to see and think whatever Fox News wants, and the rest will shrug and worry more about broken windows than why the protests are happening and say maybe the conservatives have a point
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,107
Oh, so they want to change literature that they deem as written truth & should never be changed? That's interesting.
 
Instro

Instro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,010
Maybe it's because I haven't fully read the article yet, but but even if they managed to secure 34 state legislatures, isn't this missing the critical piece wherein 3/4 of the states would still have to ratify any changes to the constitution?
 
Shiki

Shiki

Member
Nov 30, 2017
507
Mivey said:
Annexing Canada is probably up there in their list somewhere. Gotta need land further up north as climate change turns more and more places into unlivable deserts.
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As a Canadian, it's been of my biggest fear for a long time. Kept this to myself to not look like a tinfoil hat in the eyes of my friends/family but I'm terrified of it happening.

I would kiss that free health care goodbye for sure :/ let's hope it never comes to that. If it does, I'll probably be pretty old by then, hopefully
 
maximumzero

maximumzero

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,925
New Orleans, LA
Wait, rewrite the constitution? But they said the constitution is an unchangeable document!

But yeah, this is definitely happening. Most of the conservatives I know are fed up and basically just want the country to be taken control of at this point.
 
gozu

gozu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,334
America
But the constitution is already stacked in favor of the republicans/slavers? What with the electoral college and other rural-friendly garbage.
 
Cat Party

Cat Party

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,417
Instro said:
Maybe it's because I haven't fully read the article yet, but but even if they managed to secure 34 state legislatures, isn't this missing the critical piece wherein 3/4 of the states would still have to ratify any changes to the constitution?
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They don't have a plan for that. They don't have a plan to get to 34, either. They've nearly maxed out the amount of states they can control, and so far a bunch of them have refused to call for a convention.
 
Planx

Planx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,717
Instro said:
Maybe it's because I haven't fully read the article yet, but but even if they managed to secure 34 state legislatures, isn't this missing the critical piece wherein 3/4 of the states would still have to ratify any changes to the constitution?
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You can choose whether amendments are ratified by state legislatures or "State ratifying conventions'. And the second option sounds awfully easy to rig
 
eyeball_kid

eyeball_kid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,235
ThisThingIsUseful said:
Long-short: they can call a constitutional convention if they secure enough state legislatures.
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So could we. And this is what we should be working towards on issues of human rights, gun control, etc. But the Democratic party is controlled by people who are quite happy with the status quo and quite happy with short-term wins and losses as long as it keeps them in power. And with defeatists (even in the progressive wing), some of whom I've seen on this very forum, who say that a Constitutional amendment is impossible these days.
 
Foltzie

Foltzie

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
6,792
Cat Party said:
They don't have a plan for that. They don't have a plan to get to 34, either. They've nearly maxed out the amount of states they can control, and so far a bunch of them have refused to call for a convention.
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There are 31 states with active applications for a convention.

I see that Florida, Alaska, and Georgia aren't listed. 34 is quite viable though I would expect some states to revoke their "applications" if things move on those fronts.

List of state applications for an Article V Convention - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

3/4 to ratify. Unknown what the play there is, but maybe the plan is to claim a convention should be called and dare the Democrats to not to call one and use the SC to rule on the matter.
 
Parch

Parch

Member
Nov 6, 2017
7,980
Trump is probably writing his version of Mein Kampf will all his free time lately.
 
Strike

Strike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,356
Surprise, surprise. The party of small government and the people who act like the Constitution is some unimpeachable document descended from God don't actually believe in anything they say.
 
Boclfon479

Boclfon479

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,831
I feel like this would be a chips all in move by the GOP.

If they publicly tried something like this and it failed, it would be HORRIBLE optics…..


…then again, when has that ever stopped or changed their mind :/
 
Hrodulf

Hrodulf

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,313
Stuff like this is why people need to stop blaming everything on Trump and the 2016 election. Republicans have been working to dismantle this country for decades.
 
Brawly Likes to Brawl

Brawly Likes to Brawl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,097
Ryohei Suzuki's bedroom
Yourfawthaaa said:
I smell fear on their behalf.

sure this wont go over well if they do try some bat shit insane shit.
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Boclfon479 said:
I feel like this would be a chips all in move by the GOP.

If they publicly tried something like this and it failed, it would be HORRIBLE optics…..


…then again, when has that ever stopped or changed their mind :/
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there's no reason for them not to try. They made up a fake rule to get away with stealing a supreme court seat and they didn't face any punishment for it. what exactly is realistically preventing them from working toward a goal like this?
 
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