“Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!” is a famous line turned into a cliché from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz used to express fear. In the 2020’s, the fear of “Lions and Tigers and Bears” has been replaced with the fear of “climate change and anti-vaxxers and Article V of the US Constitution”, which are strange bedfellows indeed. Oh my!
There has been the same banter going on back and forth around a resolution that has been trying to get passed through our legislature since 2015 to add Montana to the list of 34 required states to call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the US Constitution which is authorized in Article V of the US Constitution. Attend a hearing regarding the resolution and you’ll quickly observe that it’s a “he said, she said” and “I know you are but what am I” kind of argument that revolves around the same two claims from the competing sides: fear and ignorance.
The two sides need to understand that it is not an “either/or” but that both are right (and wrong) and until we come together, we are more likely doomed. Patrick Henry used a relevant phrase in his last public speech, given in March 1799, in which he addresses “nullification”, a doctrine that advocates that states have the right to declare null and void any federal law that they deem unconstitutional. Henry pleaded, “United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” Nullification is a resurrected term used by the side who opposes part of the Constitution, Article V.
