It should come as no surprise that the statists editorialists writing for North Carolina’s major newspapers oppose the Article V Convention of States because —-gasp—it would place limits on the power of the federal government. A state Senate bill would submit North Carolina’s application to the Convention of States, but it remains stalled in committee.
I noted earlier this year how Greensboro News & Record editorial writer Doug Clark expressed his “amazement” that “that a majority in our state Senate thinks the U.S. Constitution is so defective that it needs a potentially massive rewrite.”
Now the Charlotte Observer weighs in:
The convention would be “limited to proposing amendments to the United States Constitution that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.”
In other words, the convention would be limited to an enormous Pandora’s Box of mischief.
America hasn’t held a constitutional convention since 1787. Given the quality of the statesmen we have today compared with then, and given the dangerous polarization that marks the United States today, calling one now could spiral into unknown territory and is an exceedingly bad idea.
Note the Observer makes the broad assumption that Thomas Jefferson would be “among those who would not be at a second constitutional convention.” That might come as surprise to the legal minds who issued the Jefferson Statement.