Dear Alabama Rainy Day Patriots,
I am writing this to you in connection with your AL US Senate debate scheduled for Thursday, February 18th, at Hoover Tactical Firearms.
The front page of your website identifies the Rainy Day Patriots as "We the People Fighting to Restore our Constitutional Republic."
Your 2015 RDP Goals box on said front page shows as crossed off and done the goal of Convention of States, and the front page further states "THE CONVENTION OF STATES HAS PASSED IN ALABAMA!"
HJR112, the Convention of States bill passed in 2015, sets forth the following:
WHEREAS, the Founders of our Constitution empowered state legislators to be guardians of liberty against future abuses of power by the federal government; andThe foregoing objective that you have to restore the country's constitutional republic would seem to overarching and fundamental, and the Convention of States bill would seem to well articulate the tenor and weightiness of your concerns.
WHEREAS, the federal government has created a crushing national debt through improper and imprudent spending; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has invaded the legitimate roles of the states through the manipulative process of federal mandates, most of which are unfunded to a great extent; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has ceased to live under a proper interpretation of the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, it is the solemn duty of the states to protect the liberty of our people, particularly for the generations to come, to propose amendments to the Constitution of the United States through a Convention of the States under Article V to place clear restraints on these and related abuses of power; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That the Legislature of the State of Alabama hereby applies to Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for the calling of a convention of the states limited to proposing amendments that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials.This is an application for a Convention of States. By definition, a Convention of States requires the equality of all state parties necessitating a rule of one state, one vote.Congress has no authority to adopt any rule to the contrary.
I have a few questions.
Have the Rainy Day Patriots concluded that the only way its objectives can be achieved is by means of a Convention of States, and do the Rainy Day Patriots think that there is no hope of achieving its objectives through Congress?
Do you know where Senators Sessions and Shelby and Representative Palmer and other members of the Alabama legislative delegation in Congress stand on this matter? Do they, and which of them, share the objective of the Rainy Day Patriots and the objectives sought to be accomplished by the Convention of States bill? If they, and whichever of them, share said objectives, to what extent do they agree with the Rainy Day Patriots that there is no hope of achieving the objectives through Congress, and that a Convention of States is needed?
I think these questions should be put to all the candidates at the debate, i.e., "To what extent do you agree that the constitutional republic of the country has been undermined and eviscerated, and the same is in need of restoration per the objectives of the Rainy Day Patriots and the Convention of States bill , and, if you agree that it is in need of restoration, to what extent do you believe that there is no hope of achieving that restoration through Congress, and that a Convention of States is needed?"
Thank you for your consideration of this letter.
TWEETS AND ADDENDUM
@SenShelby @ShadrackMcGill @mcconnell2016 @Crumpton_US_Sen @NanaforSenate Plz see letter to RDP re debate on Thurs. https://t.co/Msde2PdrrG— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 15, 2016
@SenatorSessions @BradleyByrne @TeamRoby @RepMikeRogersAL Questions for AL legis. delegation re COS. https://t.co/Msde2PdrrG #alpolitics— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 15, 2016
@Robert_Aderholt @RepMoBrooks @USRepGaryPalmer @Sewell4Congress Questions for AL Cong. Reps re COS. https://t.co/Msde2PdrrG #alpolitics— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 15, 2016
@RobShattuckAL06 I support the COS resolution. Congress has willingly abdicated constitutional duties& Article V can limit federal expansion— Marshall A. Yates (@M_A_Yates) February 15, 2016
@M_A_Yates Thank you Marshall. I am mainly trying to pin down belief, or not, that we can completely forget about Congress ever doing job.— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 15, 2016
@McCutcheonWins Thank you Shaun. I am mainly trying to pin down belief, or not, that we can completely forget about Congress ever doing job.— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 15, 2016
As the above tweets indicate, I am trying to get views of the Alabama legislative delegation and of others, particularly about whether those who share the weighty concerns and objectives of the Rainy Day Patriots and of COS proponents should completely forget about Congress addressing the matters in question on its own..@RobShattuckAL06 don't worry, a few more years of this and you'll have 40+ states more than ready to convene & help Congress.— Shaun #McCutcheon (@McCutcheonWins) February 15, 2016
To me, it seems a dereliction of Senators Sessions and Shelby and the seven Alabama Representatives in Congress if they are not fulsomely frank with their Alabama constituents about their views on this subject matter.
A couple of considerations should be particularly mentioned.
First, citizens of all the States, and their generations to come, are being similarly affected, and just about all of them should have the same weighty concerns that Alabamians have. Are numerous Senators and Representatives in Congress for other states failing their constituents by not contributing to, and even obstructing, Congress in the addressing the weighty concerns of the Rainy Day Patriots and COS proponents? Are such Senators and Representatives even going so far as to deceive their constituents about this subject matter? If the foregoing is happening, don't Alabama's Senators and Representatives have a special obligation to find ways to speak out to citizens in other states that Senators and Representatives from those other states are failing to serve the best interests of those citizens. Alabama's Senators and Representatives should tell their Alabama constituents that they are taking any such extreme step of trying to go directly to the citizens of other states. Further Alabama's Senators and Representatives should arm their Alabama constituents with written materials to use to contact citizens in other states to call on their state legislatures to call for a Convention of States.
Next, if the foregoing is what Alabama's Senators and Representatives should be doing, there should be some accounting by them of when they came to the conclusion that Congress is useless to the country on this matter.
Of course, if Alabama's Senators and Representatives think that Congress should not be written off related to this subject matter, and there should be efforts to work through Congress, Alabama's Senators and Representatives ought to give fulsome report to Alabamians of the history and progress of efforts to work through Congress. These reports would properly be evaluated by Alabamians to determine their level of confidence that satisfactory progress is being made by working through Congress.
