US Politics

Open Letter to Congressman Ron Paul

By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Published June 06, 2007

There are numerous reasons to admire you, as I have for many years. Clearly you are running for president as a Republican, rather than a third party candidate, for the purpose of getting richly deserved media and public attention not available to those outside the two-party duopoly.

In last night's debate among Republican presidential candidates you proudly described yourself as a "champion of the Constitution." However, you are missing a major opportunity to demonstrate your courage and allegiance to our constitutional republic.

You have acknowledged the appropriateness of amending the Constitution. In fact, you introduced legislation for an amendment that would stop giving automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents.

You said:

Our founders knew that unforeseen problems with our system of government would arise, and that's precisely why they gave us a method for amending the Constitution. It's time to rethink birthright citizenship by amending the 14th amendment.

Personally, I endorse this particular amendment. More important, however, I am disappointed that you have never latched on to the long history of Congress' failure to honor and obey the part of Article V of the Constitution that gives Americans the right to a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution – an alternative to Congress proposing amendments. Interestingly, the particular amendment that you favor will probably never emerge from Congress, but might have a better chance through an Article V convention.

Why have you failed to acknowledge that Congress has ignored over 500 applications from state legislatures from all 50 states for an Article V convention? As a champion of the Constitution, surely you know that the one and only requirement explicitly stated in Article V is that two-thirds of state legislatures ask for one.

Surely you also know that Congress has never passed any law that expands or modifies this single explicit constitutional requirement. So, I ask you Congressman Paul: Why have you remained silent on the Article V issue?

If you do not believe that Congress should honor Article V's provision for a convention, why not say so publicly? If you believe that it should never be used, then why not call for an amendment to delete it from our Constitution?

Please, Congressman Paul, as a champion of the Constitution, do not behave like other members of Congress and silently veto a crucial part of the Constitution that the Framers wisely gave us. They anticipated that eventually Americans could lose confidence in the federal government.

You clearly have earned the respect and support of millions of Americans because you object to so many policies and actions of the federal government. Thus, you, more than virtually any other member of Congress, should appreciate the wisdom of the Framers in giving us the Article V convention option.

I beg you to speak up and demonstrate just how much of a champion of the Constitution you really are by bringing national attention to the Article V convention issue and supporting its use.

As a founder of Friends of the Article V Convention I invite you to play a leading role in giving the United States of America its first Article V convention.

Joel S. Hirschhorn, Ph.D., is the author of Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health, and Money. He can be reached through his website: www.sprawlkills.com. Check out Joel's new book at www.delusionaldemocracy.com.

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By jeffiner99 (anonymous) | Posted June 06, 2007 at 13:35:54

Dr. Hirschhorn,
Dr. Paul is the most knowledgeable candidate about the US Constitution and I am sure knows about the Article V convention issue. However, he only gets a few measly seconds to discuss things on the debates. If you watched the NH debate last night it was appalling how little time he gets. He doesn't even have time to talk about the Fed and the inflation tax, which is a much more pressing matter but equally difficult to discuss without educating the public.
I suggest you go to Lew Rockwell .com and look for Ron Paul's name under columnists and see if you can find an article he has written on this subject.
Also, call the media. Tell them what a poor job they are doing; how we all want to hear more of Ron Paul and a lot less of Mitt and Rudy. Call CNN and tell them you find it deplorable that while Ron Paul is leading the polls on their own site, their pundits ignore him completely. Tell CNN we will stop trusting them altogether if they keep showing such blatant favoritism.
I just came from a convention from the Future of Freedom Foundation where Dr. Paul spoke and he had a lot of eloquent things to say about the Constitution and the recent abuses.
It's not that he is not talking about these things, it is just that you are not getting to hear them.

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