“The recent movement to call a convention to propose amendments…has sown consternation in Washington–precisely because it is the one device that can effectively bypass the Washington bureaucracy.”

– Milton Friedman

“We must rely on the states to force Congress to act on our amendment. Our Nation’s Founders gave us the means to amend the Constitution through action of state legislators. That is the only strategy that will work.”

– Ronald Reagan

“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.”

– United States Constitution, Article 5Continue Reading

“The States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore…never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may be more secretly be bought and sold as at market.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Our nation has experienced a complicated and ever-evolving relationship between our central (federal) government and our state governments. There are three broad approaches to division of powers between state and national governments; Unitary, Confederal and Federal.

Unitary systems are governments whereby virtually all power is consolidated at the central or national level.

Confederal systems are at the opposite end of the spectrum – where virtually all decision-making power is pushed out to the state level. The national government’s primary purpose is to serve as the mechanism that keeps states loosely bound to each other. Said another way, under Confederal systems each state keeps its own sovereign rights – and can secede.

Federal systems lie somewhere in the middle – and cover a broad spectrum of definitions. Federalism divides powers between state and national governments. Each level of government is independent and each level has its own set of powers and responsibilities. In its truest form, Federalism divides powers between national government and states in such a way that both levels are lawfully regarded as having equal stature or parity. In practice, the national government often attempts to consolidate power and ends up being supreme to state governments.

The system chosen by our founding fathers was a Federal system – one that retained a large amount of power at the state level and away from the central government.Continue Reading