I recently received (for the third time I believe) an email that’s making the rounds that calls for a proposed 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The main point of the message, and the proposed amendment, is to make Congress live by the same laws they make us live by – a laudable goal. However, the message calls for a “Constitutional Convention” to implement this proposal – this I must warn against.

Amendments to the U.S. Constitution can be passed without a convention (see U.S. Constitution, Article V). Once a convention is called, even though it might have been called with the intention of addressing a particular amendment, the convention once convened can bring forward any amendment it wants or even propose an entirely new Constitution (listen to U.S. Senate candidate Scott Bradley’s speech on Repulse an Article V Constitutional Convention). In today’s political environment, I would be gravely concerned that a constitutional convention could result in an amendment, or a new constitution, that declares us to be “citizens of the world” or that does away with our Bill of Rights and instead subjects us to an international court that determines our rights or that declares us to be part of a hemispheric government that some in power already seek.

My favorite solution to the problem of non-representing representatives who think they are above the law, is to “throw the bums out!” Of course you can’t just throw the bums out and then replace them with new bums. What we really need is for men of honor to have the courage to step forward and offer themselves as candidates, as my friend Randall Yearout calls for in his “Constitution Minute” radio commentary on “The Oath of Office.” Of course this would put the burden back on ‘we the people,’ who would then be obligated to give such men the support they would need to win election to office – you know the establishment won’t do it, so it’s up to us.