NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Former Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, told Christian media leaders Wednesday that a convention of the states, provided for the Constitution’s Article V, is needed to recapture American governance from an out-of-control government that has lost its way regardless of the party in power.
Mr. Santorum, who said he was “canceled” as a CNN commentator last May and is now with Newsmax TV, told the National Religious Broadcasters media leadership dinner that America is at a critical point.
Along with his television gig, Mr. Santorum is active with Convention of States Action, a Houston-based nonprofit group that backs a national gathering to offer amendments to the Constitution.
He said he’s been to 10 states in the past year lobbying legislatures to adopt resolutions calling for the move.
Speaking with The Washington Times after a speech that drew a standing ovation from the largely evangelical crowd, Mr. Santorum said he’s not running for office, but rather “running” for the organization’s goal.
In his speech, he sounded a dire warning about the nation’s direction.
“We’re seeing authoritarianism that I never saw before,” Mr. Santorum said. “We’re seeing it, frankly, from both parties: $30 trillion doesn’t get spent by one party. A $30 trillion deficit doesn’t happen with just one party.”
He added, “We’re at the time in America where we have to break the glass and pull the cord that says ‘pull here in case of emergency’,” he said. “I think we have to come to that collective realization, then things are not going to get better on their own doing what we have been doing.”
The Washington Times is a sponsor of the broadcasters’ convention.
The idea of an “Article V Convention,” where states could propose a single Constitutional amendment or multiple ones, has gained currency in recent years while also generating controversy.
Conservative commentators such as Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro have advocated for the move, as have constitutional law professors Lawrence Lessig of the Harvard Law School and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University’s law school.
Two-thirds of the nation’s states, 34 out of 50, would have to call for such a convention for it to take place. Proposed amendments would have to be ratified either by three-fourths of the states’ legislatures (or 38 states) or by state ratifying conventions in two-thirds of the states (34).
Mr. Santorum conceded it is a daunting task.
“I don’t know whether we’re going to win or not,” he said. “I don’t even know [if we] get a convention of the states, whether we’ll pass any big amendments that make a huge difference. But we try. We give it our best. We’re willing to risk it all.”
Mr. Santorum said that while “millions of Americans” are rallying behind the cause of a convention of the states, it may only provide a brief respite from the societal revolution underway.
“When your culture is decaying as badly as it is, it’s not going to save America,” he said of a new constitutional convention.
“But at least it will give it some oxygen to give you a chance to do that. Because what it does is use a principle as used as a part of the Constitution itself, Article V, in which the founders put in place, a mechanism to call back the power of Washington without getting Washington’s permission,” he said.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.