As part of my story development, I’ve been thinking about throwing a Constitutional Convention into the plot. So, I checked my copy of the US Constitution and this is the relevant section:
Article V
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; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
So, 34 states would need to propose the convention. It’s a little unclear how the convention would be run (none have been called up till now) and no one knows whether its scope would be limited to some fixed agenda ahead of time or not. Then 38 states would have to ratify the amendments. Apparently, there has been much speculation in the past about the way votes would be counted and limitations on the scope of such a convention. But as a plot device it seems singularly fraught with both dramatic opportunities and problems.
Now a careful count of red and blue states made me aware that the red states cannot call a convention on their own never mind ratify its results. So, this convention will need to be some kind of a bipartisan effort that is seen as a last chance to head off secession by disgruntled red states.
The story telling opportunities I mentioned above probably occur where the various “sides” get to make their points of view known and haggle between each other about what changes would allow both sides to agree to stay inside the same political framework.
One amendment that seemed interesting would be the right of a state to secede from the union. Recently we witnessed Brexit leading to the UK leaving the EU. Quebec has twice voted on leaving Canada and other Canadian provinces have also toyed with voting on secession.
Beyond this, there are several other amendments that sound interesting. But ultimately, I think the convention in the book will be a failure and non-constitutional actions will be necessary to resolve the disagreements between the various factions. So, this book will be about a national crackup, I think. But the main question is whether I can make it more than just a little entertaining. War is not my forte so writing a story with Americans fighting each other sounds very controversial. Can it be done without alienating enormous swaths of the reading population? Well, that’s what I have to figure out.
The Article V convention was a bete noir of the left for a time in the 90’s. This is mostly due to their poor reading comprehension and not realizing that a convention may propose amendments, which then still need ratification by the states. In essence its an end around method of dealing with a recalcitrant congress. There have been MANY calls for an article V convention (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_applications_for_an_Article_V_Convention ) but none have ever reached the 2/3’s limit. Many calls have been aimed at a particular issue (e.g. ending slavery pre Civil War, proposing an amendment for a balanced budget… Read more »
AS a plot device in my story it has a little more justification because the Capitol building was obliterated in the first story and so bypassing Congress is almost a necessity. But dramatically I need the convention to fail to proceed to more exciting action. The danger is letting things get out of control. Someone has already noted to me that the outside world is full of unfriendly forces that would take advantage of an American quarrel to do us harm.
I had forgotten that the Capitol was destroyed Depending on what part of congress was killed one might have to essentially fudge things a bit to recognize the states requests. Essentially we’ve never exercised this part of the constitution other than to record requests for the convention. And yes anyone with wherewithal that is opposed to the US will be on us like white on rice. The other question is do the untrusty parts of the US administration align in some fashion with other parts of the world? As for drama and contention there is likely to be plenty at… Read more »
Tregonsee, your advice about staying true to the logic of the story and the nature of the protagonists agrees with my instincts too. But I’ve definitely opened up a can of worms that are crawling away in every direction at once. Well, back to the salt mines.
Please refer to Zymurgy’s first law of topology, to wit ” A can of worms once opened will require a can with a greater volume to recan them all.”
Best of luck with the worms.
Gracias. I’m reveling in a continuing increase in sales. Today I’ve sold more than a thousand pages (~5 books) which is double the next highest page total I’ve seen so far. A couple of days ago I sold six e-copies. I seem to have finally gotten some greater visibility to the larger audience. Fingers crossed.