“The Constitution is no longer operative in Washington,” Jim DeMint, former president of the Heritage Foundation and current senior advisor on the Convention of States, told Hillsdale students and faculty Wednesday night.
DeMint was the main speaker at the first-ever Citizens for Self-Governance event.
For one hour, DeMint, joined by Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance’s national organization, made the case for the an Article V constitutional convention of states.
DeMint said a convention of states will involve change and risk. However, he said the original Constitution does not have meaning today.
He said the original Constitution “has been replaced by years of case law that has obliterated the original meaning.
“I can’t think of anything that the federal government is not regulating,” DeMint said.
Citing the tenth amendment of the Constitution, DeMint said the states and the people were originally delegated powers not enumerated in the Constitution. This is not the case today.
“There’s nothing that the federal government is leaving to the states or the people, or very few,” DeMint said.
“There’s already been a run-away convention and we weren’t invited,” he said. “Everything is constitutional for the federal government.”
He said the unbridaled government has a negative impact on various levels of society: culture, education, the free market, insurance, and energy.
“We now have an overbearing government that is involved in every area of our lives,” DeMint said.
He noted the gap between the amount of money the federal government receives and the amount it spends is unsustainable. This is the reason DeMint supports the constitutional convention of the states.
“The system of the government is no longer politically possible,” he said. “Our only solution now is the people. The only thing to do is to turn to a convention of the states.”
DeMint proposed three subject matters the convention should incorporate into the Constitution with the aim of restoring “the original limits on the Constitution.”
The first is to expose the federal government by requiring a balanced budget and spending accountability.Secondly, the Constitution must limit the authority and jurisdiction of the federal government. The third is imposing term limits on federal officials.
Joining DeMint and carrying all 2,738 pages of the operative constitution, Meckler reinforced the need for a convention of states.
“The truth is that the constitution has been stolen from us,” Meckler said.
According to Meckler, law students learn what judges say the constitution means, and not the Constitution itself.
“This is the Constitution we labor under today,” he said. “It’s kind of like a game of telephone.”
He praised Hillsdale College for teaching the constitution and felt honored that “the first students for self governance is started here.”
Sophomore Emily Heubaum, the Marketing Chair for Citizens for Self-Governance at Hillsdale, was enthusiastic about DeMint’s visit.
“It’s so exciting to have someone so influential to speak at our first event,” she said.
She appreciated DeMent’s work in favor of the Constitutional Convention of States. “He is a great speaker for the movement and explains it so well,” Heubaum said.
Charles Steele, professor of economics at Hillsdale and faculty advisor for Citizens for Self-Governance, was happy with the event as well.
“I think I learned a lot, and I knew a lot before,” Steele said.
He said it is important to figure out how to solve the problems in the U.S. government.
“A convention of states is a valuable solution,” he said.