The Colorado State Open Thread is designed to be of interest to people who have heard of, maybe even live in our great “Squarish” state of mountains, plains, dark skies, fertile prairies, soaring heights, deep canyons and the headwaters of some of the country’s greatest rivers. Or for people just looking for an alternative to whatever else they’re reading. This is published (usually) on Monday evenings, 7PM Mountain time. As an Open Thread, we welcome any and all subjects that people and AI’s wish to touch upon and we also welcome guest writers, should anyone wish to step forward and volunteer.
Tonight’s principle topic is one I stumbled upon in my news aggregator app, and the original article appeared in Business Insider. From the article:
This isn't an exercise, either. State lawmakers are invited to huddle in Denver starting on Sunday to learn more about the inner workings of a possible constitutional convention at Academy of States 3.0, the third installment of a boot camp preparing state lawmakers "in anticipation of an imminent Article V Convention."
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Article V to the US Constitution provides two ways to amend the nation's organizing document — the most difficult, but most dramatic way to alter American society's very foundation.
The first is for a two-thirds majority of Congress to propose an amendment, with three-fourths of states ratifying it. This is how all 27 of the current amendments to the Constitution were added, but it's a path that today is largely blocked because of intractable partisan divisions. No American under 30 has experienced the nation amending the Constitution in his or her lifetime.
The second method — never before accomplished — involves two-thirds of US states to call a convention. The power to call for a convention belongs solely to state legislatures, who would pass and ratify amendments without a governor's signature, Congress' intervention, or any input from the president.
A Constitutional Convention scares the hell out of me. The article goes on to highlight the efforts of conservatives who want to call a convention so they can rewrite the wholesale foundational document and get rid of a number of things that they don’t like, or at least rewrite them in terms favorable to them and not to those people they don’t like or don’t think the US was founded to care about, like people of color, women, immigrants, the poor, those who want to practice other religions than whatever version of Christianity the people like Rick Santorum and this new Republican governor nominee from Pennsylvania support. They want to solidify in the Constitution, not just a Supreme Court ruling, things like the right of any and all people to bear any and all types of arms, restore rules to eliminate the right to vote for those they find objectionable (blacks, other people of color, people of the wrong religions, women, etc) eliminate the wall between church and state (remember what Lauren Boebert lied about the other day?), restrict free speech, codify that corporations are people, make money unlimited for campaigns and still be able to drown government in a bathtub when convenient. They want to firmly outlaw all abortion, make the government unable to intrude on people’s lives (yeah, these are conflicting, but when has that stopped Republican hypocrisy?) and take on all the other ideas they’ve found objectionable over the centuries in this country.
The article points out that some conservatives are worried things might go the wrong way at such a convention and perhaps some of the rights to own guns might be restricted. That doesn’t appear to stop Santorum and those in favor of this kind of convention.
The article points out that there may be efforts to restrict the topics that a Constitutional Convention and the state delegations might try and address, but it also points out that once the Convention convenes, they really write their own rules and no part of the federal government — none of the legislative, judicial or executive branches can impose any outside rules or limits to what happens inside the convention hall, so if the delegates decide they want to go off the rails, there’s nothing stopping them. At one point, the article also mentions that votes would be taken with each state having a single vote, similar to how Trump was planning on winning the election by tossing it into the House of Representatives since there is a slight majority of Republican state delegations, despite the fact that far more people live in Democratic-led states than in Republican ones. The Republicans are also planning on increasing their lead of states this fall, which I hope to Dog doesn’t happen.
The article quotes various opinions on the likelihood of such a convention happening. Some are optimistic that it will happen as soon as the Republicans (primarily Trump but in any event, a MAGA candidate) take back the White House in 2024 or 2028, which others are saying such a convention is not likely to ever happen. I have many objections to how this country is run as an oligarchy and how many of the things I’d like as a progressive are being methodically ground into the dust by both Republicans, a religious Supreme Court that is beholden to nobody and often ineffectual leadership by Democrats who are still trying to compromise with Republicans to govern the country. I would not like this country to be run as a Republican wet dream, however, and that’s what I fear would happen if a Constitutional convention happened. Why this is happening in Denver right now, I don’t know. I know some of the worst offenders of human rights in this country call Colorado their home, including the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the various Christianist groups located in and around Colorado Springs, but we also have some wonderful people in this state who are forward thinking, having passed one of the first systems allowing medical and recreational marijuana to be sold legally in our state, plus beautiful patches of nature preserved for all time (well, politicians willing). I very much like living here and in the US, but I would be very worried if a Constitutional convention came to be where all that I love could be changed by all that I’m against.
Now, on to a lighter subject. Last week’s photo was correctly identified by a couple of readers. It is the “World’s Wonder View Tower” located near Genoa, Colorado on the eastern plains by I-70 and Highway 24. It has been closed for a few years but it is being worked on to try and restore it as a historical monument.
The tower would become the highest point between New York City and the Rocky Mountains (a fact confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey). The claim that one could see six states from the top of the tower (Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico) was published by Ripley’s Believe It or Not in 1933. The tower quickly became the primary attraction in Lincoln County, CO featured in guidebooks from the 1930s until 2013. Not only did visitors marvel over the view, but they could study paintings by a real Indian princess or venture past a rattlesnake pit.
I look forward to the day when I’ll be able to visit and see their various attractions — the principle one being the view from the top.
As a reminder, I also accept photos submitted for Colorado items of interest so hurry up and get them in to me. Please add comments below; the floor is open...