The very public temper tantrum exhibited by Elon Musk toward Donald Trump and the subsequent responses from the president are a waste of time and energy.
Both Trump and Musk have impulse control issues -- Stormy Daniels and Ashley St. Clair come to mind.
So expect a few more salvoes of insults to be hurled form each side.
That being said, Musk is absolutely justified in his frustration with how the legislative process works (or doesn’t work), a frustration that has been the source of many a political movement (e.g., the Tea Party, et al.) over the past several decades of modern politics.
However, trying to spin off a new political party is doomed for failure. The problems in Washington are systemic. When re-election is the primary focus of all members of Congress (and the raising of money for that cause), then a new party will fall into the pit of endless over spending and within just a few short months after swearing in and morph into the uni-party.
It is clear that Musk did not fully realize is that there are 535 piglets in Congress, nearly all of whom are bellying up to the public trough to consume as much hog-slop (which they call legislation) as they can to ensure re-election.
I am sure Musk came along on the Trump train with optimistic naiveté believing that now the “right” people are in charge to fix a system that is clearly broken. Reality has sunk in and now, like a heartbroken lover, Musk is lashing out.
Our Founding Fathers anticipated this and put into the Constitution a safety valve for just such a problem.
It is buried in Article V.
Yes, it is time again to talk about a Convention of States.
Musk can and should focus on getting the requisite number of states to call for an Article V Convention of States with the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution for the establishment of term limits for members of Congress and a balanced budget amendment.
Article V of the Constitution states the following:
“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.”
The language in Article V is well crafted, providing for guardrails that prevent frivolous or absurd amendments from being passed or the Constitution from being completely rewritten.
The problem with other attempts to bring about an Article V Convention of States (AVC) has been a lack of coherent and consistent calls from each of the several states.
There are some, whom we will call purists, who say that each of the calls for an AVC must be identical.
There is no such requirement in the Constitution, this is an artificial hurdle that the purists hope is too high to clear.
There are also the alarmists who say once an AVC is convened it will result in a “runaway” convention and the First and Second Amendments would be abolished.
The purists and alarmists are the same folks who fear that power will be taken away from Washington and that the states then would be “more equal” to the Washingtonians in crafting policy and spending money.
There is a safety valve to prevent ludicrous amendments from becoming part of the Constitution and that is only 13 states are needed to vote 'no' on any of the proposed amendments. So, the fearmongers have nothing to fear other than responsible government.
There may already be enough calls for an AVC to be convened, but the Constitution does not specify who determines when the requisite number has been called. Many states have sent resolutions for an AVC to Washington over the last 234 years since the adoption of the Constitution. A true accounting of these attempts has never been tallied. These resolutions for an AVC are sent to the National Archives, but the Archivist is not required to submit a report to the Speaker of the House stating that the threshold of 34 states has been met. An audit has never been called for by any member of Congress. And without such an audit, we may never know. It is for this reason that a new push for an AVC is essential.
If this were a movie script, Musk would take up the Herculean task of getting 34 States to pass identical resolutions to call for an AVC.
Musk himself could run as a delegate from Texas to be part of the AVC. The script would undoubtedly make Musk the president of the AVC and he would save the day and pass just two well-crafted amendments for the states to ratify.
His post-convention work would be to lobby the states legislatures to ensure that these amendments become the law of the land. This would ensure a place in the history books for Musk occupied by only a select few such Pericles of ancient Athens and Madison of early America.
But sadly, life is not a movie script with a happy ending, more often than not, life is either a dark comedy or a tragedy.
There is no doubt that any successful AVC will need a champion. Perhaps that is Elon Musk or perhaps someone else from the MAGA movement. Or perhaps no one will be found to take up this task and the great American experiment will end in tragedy collapsing under the weight of trillions in debt.
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