Hello and welcome to the podcast version of COS Live, a weekly program keeping you up
to date on the Article 5 movement working to reclaim liberty in America.
You can watch the original live broadcasts on Convention of States, Rumble, YouTube,
Facebook, and X. And now here's COS Live.
Hello CO supporters, welcome back to another edition of COS Live.
My name is Andrew Luz, I'll be your host, and of course I am joined with Rita Peters,
who is my co-host, but she's also the Senior Vice President of Legislative Affairs.
Rita, it has been several weeks since I've been with you.
Great to be back. How are you doing?
I am doing great, Andrew, and producer G and I have really missed you.
So welcome back to your regular hosting duty.
I'm sure our viewers have missed you too.
And love to get some comments from those of you watching today.
If you have a comment about how happy you are to see Andrew back,
feel free to let us know.
Also, if you have a question or something you would like to have featured on a
future episode for RCS Mailbag, the way to do that is to post a comment.
Rita, the feeling is definitely mutual.
I missed you, missed producer G, and of course I missed our audience.
Happy to be back.
And Rita, I'm really happy because this is our favorite time of the year right now.
It is Constitution Week.
We had Article 5 Day last week, which was really exciting.
It's kind of a big thing in our organization.
Thanks to Colonel George Mason, who helped get Article 5 introduced,
or the Second Division of Article 5, introduced into the Constitution.
So we have a lot to celebrate with Article 5 Day passing.
We had the signing of the Constitution, Constitution Day just passed on Sunday.
And now it is Constitution Week.
So the celebration continues.
We have a jam packed, very exciting episode.
Rita, that we are going to share with our audience.
Unfortunately, we don't have our guest today, Eric Birlson.
Unfortunately, something came up and he was not able to make this program.
We're going to have him next week, Rita, which is really exciting.
So our guest should be waiting in anticipation for that interview.
We're going to be talking about how he helped Missouri pass the COS resolution,
making COS the 12th state to join the Convention of States movement.
So we're talking with him next week, which is really, really exciting.
Rita, unfortunately, our guests are stuck with us today.
But we have a few tricks up our sleeves.
We're going to get to our Article 5, or I'm sorry, we're going to get to,
yes, the Article 5 trivia giveaway with COS Vice President Mike Ruthenberg.
We also are going to do the COS now with producer G.
We have a Crossroads video because your show Crossroads is coming back this Thursday.
Took a slight hiatus over the summer, but you're coming back.
And so that's really exciting.
We'll talk about that.
And then of course, we have a secret video that producer G has waiting in the wings.
We both don't know what it is.
We're really excited to view it.
We're going to be reacting to that with our audience, because we haven't seen it yet.
So that is really exciting.
A lot to get to Rita.
So before we get to any of those great things,
let's go over to Mike Ruthenberg who has our Article 5 trivia giveaway question.
Mike, over to you.
Thank you, Andrew.
And welcome back.
I'm so excited to see you back.
And what a great time to be back for the Constitution Week celebration.
And what a great time to be here.
What a great time to be talking about the Constitution, especially Article 5.
And I'm so glad to be able to bring a trivia question that's related to this
in this wonderful Constitution Week.
And one of the things I'm going to give away today,
instead of the cool COS ball cap,
instead of a really wonderful faith over fear shirt,
which you can see I wear quite a bit,
I'm going to give away a 10 pack of our COS Constitution's pocket
constitutions.
What a better time.
What better time is there than to get a 10 pack of our constitutions.
If you win them, great.
They're so inexpensive in the store that even if you don't win them,
you should go to shopcomentionstates.com.
Right now is a great time to be promoting the Constitution,
to be putting it right in front of people,
let people keep it in their shirt pocket.
They're back pocket in their purse, in their bag, in their backpack.
Whatever it is, because then you can refer to it.
It's amazing.
Amazing what's in that Constitution that so many people don't know.
So here's our question today.
And it's real simple, why?
According to what our founding fathers put in the Declaration of Independence,
our governments instituted, why are governments instituted?
In other words, why form a Constitution at all?
That's my question.
Go ahead and answer that.
I hope you're the one.
Remember, it can be done pretty briefly,
but reach out, think about it.
If not, go to your Declaration of Independence.
It's a great reason to read it, to find out why,
why on earth governments are instituted.
So anyway, I'm going to come back a little bit later,
give you the answer to that.
In the meantime, I'm going to turn it over to Andrew and Rita,
and they're going to put on a fantastic show today.
Back to you, Andrew.
Thanks, Michael.
It's that time again to see some history being made.
Producer G, please play the COS now.
The Convention of States movement is starting
to turn some heads inside the beltway,
positively from the Heritage Foundation and Speaker Kevin McCarthy,
with some negative coverage from the Washington Post.
We'll start with what Kevin McCarthy said.
In an interview on Mark Levin's radio program,
McCarthy admitted that his colleagues in Congress
did not want term limits or a bounce budget,
and that only an article five convention
could realistically make those kind of reforms.
And I don't see Congress voting to limit its terms.
Because the only way you can do that is Convention of States.
You're not going to be able to do it through Congress.
Yeah, with article five of the US Constitution,
gives the article five, do you support that convention of state?
I support it, I support it 100%.
And the argument that Matt says that I haven't brought him up yet,
I let the committee, the members do their work.
It hasn't come out of committee yet.
So why can I bring it to the floor?
And if you really support term limits and bounce budget,
you want to amend the Constitution,
you're not going to get it through Congress.
It has to be article five, the second method
of amending the Constitution, correct?
Correct, it only takes 34 states to call the convention
and 38 to ratify any amendments that are proposed.
This is why there's a big movement
on the article five for convention.
Mitch McConnell, your thoughts?
Meanwhile, Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts
appeared on the latest edition of COS at Home
to share his thoughts on attending last month's
simulated article five convention.
That is a direct result of that simulation
that we're going to be really supportive
of your effort moving forward, beyond just my own personal support,
but the institutional supportive heritage
and all of our own supporters.
That simulation is tremendous.
Another day, another hit piece
from the establishment media against convention of states.
This time, it was the Washington Post
attacking convention of states co-founder Michael Ferris
for his lifelong fight for parental rights.
Super spooky stuff.
On the lighter side, the COS store is now article five outfitters.
You can get your swag at conventionstates.com forward slash store
to get great deals and American-made swag
that gets the word out there about the constitutional solution.
That's as big as the problem.
Recently, COS President Mark Mechler attended
the Massachusetts team's capital event,
as well as a town hall in Arkansas.
Educational town halls are happening everywhere,
including New York and Virginia.
And here are some of the latest photos
from across the United States of everyday Americans
spreading the word about article five.
Join your state team and share the petition
at conventionofstates.com.
And now, you're up to date with convention of states.
Thank you, producer G, for that excellent montage.
Rita, there was a lot in that segment.
What was your favorite moment?
What do you want to comment on?
Well, first of all, I have to say,
producer G always makes me laugh
with his little pithy commentary on this now video.
Yeah, he always makes me laugh.
But, you know, a couple of things.
First of all, I love having Mark Levin remind the nation
that article five convention of states process
is absolutely indispensable.
And right now is when the nation needs to use it
to rein in and out of control federal government.
And I love when he just gets to talking about, you know,
Congress isn't going to reform itself.
And the founders knew that, which is why
they gave us this whole second process in article five.
So I love hearing him talk to McCarthy
about that love hearing about McCarthy's enthusiastic support.
What did you think of that, Andrew?
I agree with you completely.
And you said, Mark Levin was, you know,
talking about how Congress is not going to reform itself.
Well, apparently, Speaker McCarthy knows this too.
He realizes that Congress is not going to implement
term limits.
It's unlikely to do some type of balance budget amendment,
unlikely to do some type of amendment,
extremely unlikely, some type of amendment
that would restrain Congress's power.
Because he sees the writing on the wall.
He sees that Congress doesn't have an interest
in doing these things.
That's why our movement has grown so much over the last 10 years.
That's why we're at 19 states that have passed
the US resolution.
That's why we have several states that are looking
like they could pass next year.
Each year that passes, the American people see more and more
that the elected officials, they don't have an interest
in solving the big issues.
They would rather argue with each other over the small issues,
the things that are really lack any substance.
So I'm glad that Mark Levin was really putting,
Speaker McCarthy on the spot and getting him to commit
to the fact that yes, this can only be solved
through a convention of states.
The people working through their state legislatures,
that's the way that we solve the debt issues
that we have the term limit or the terms of offices
and people becoming career politicians.
And of course, issues of jurisdiction and power
that has to be solved with the people working
through their state legislatures.
So again, we can give a shout out to producer G
because he just has a, he's really gifted
when it comes to putting these montages together
and adding a little bit of humor.
I did like Mitch McConnell and the crickets.
That was pretty fun because we're building.
He's not one who wants term limits
or reduction of power from Congress.
We know that he's completely against
reigning the power and the scope of the federal government.
Yeah, and that's right, Andrew.
But on the other hand, I wanted to mention,
we are seeing more and more patriots
who have spent time in Congress now coming forward to say,
yes, we need the states to use their article five power.
Senator Rick Santorum, who is now senior advisor
for Convention of States devoting this time
in his career to making this happen
because he's been in the belly of the beast
and he knows that that's what is required.
Before him, you know, our late amazing friend
and patriot Senator Tom Coburn doing the same thing
devoted the last part of his life to this movement
because he knew how desperately the nation needed it.
Senator Jim DeMitt, next week,
we're gonna talk to Burleson from Missouri, you know,
and the list goes on and on.
I've only just touched a few.
But more and more, we're seeing those who have been in Congress
and see firsthand the situation there come forward
and say, yes, states, it's time to use your power
under article five.
I also wanted to just touch briefly, Andrew,
on the Washington Post hit piece on Michael Ferris.
And yes, I know it was certainly intended to be a hit piece.
But frankly, I read the thing and thought,
this is a beautiful tribute to Michael Ferris,
who is a hero for Americans who, you know,
care about parental rights,
care about any of their fundamental civil liberties.
Just, you know, the fact that the Washington Post is upset
because Mike Ferris has made parental rights
a rallying cry, you know, it's kind and producer G
had a little laugh about that as well, I noticed.
But, you know, it was in fact a beautiful tribute.
I would follow Michael Ferris into any battle,
so proud to work with him and so proud to have him also
as a senior advisor for Convention of States.
All right, Rita, will we have another episode
of Crossroads that's coming up on Thursday?
I'd love to play a clip that producer G put together
and then we can talk about Crossroads coming back
in just a moment.
So, you know, when I think back on my education, you know,
back in middle school, high school,
when I learned about the Constitution,
the things that I remember from back then
that I think, you know, most Americans would say
are the defining features would be enumerated powers,
which Mike, you've already hit on,
and then separation of powers and checks and balances.
So, we've talked about enumeration of powers.
Talk to me a little bit about the separation of powers
and checks and balances.
Maybe one of you could take each of those
and talk about why they're important.
Mike, we'll have you go first.
Well, the separation of powers to doctrine
is designed again to protect liberty.
And it's the idea that the same thing,
nobody wants to give sinful people too much power.
And so, the president, the executive branch,
is supposed to have the power to enforce law,
but not make the law.
Now, obviously, that's a real issue today
with executive orders in all manner
of other executive kinds of orders.
They have a variety there.
There's six specific names that they use
for various kinds of executive orders, regulations
and so on, but the idea is all the same.
Is some branch of the executive group of government
is making law.
And that's not supposed to be the way is the separation
of powers is a key feature of limiting power,
which is a key goal of protecting our degrees.
Mark, what about checks and balances?
So, by creating three separate branches of government,
what the framers gave us was the ability
to balance power, power against power essentially.
Courts can limit the legislative and the executive.
Obviously, the legislative has the power
and should have the only power to pass laws
as a representative body,
especially when you're dealing with the House of Representatives,
the people's house, they directly represent
the people of the United States of America
in that check-in balance between the courts.
And then the executive, the executive's job,
the executive branch's job is to faithfully execute
the laws as passed by Congress.
So, having those three branches offset against each other
and balancing each other out in a check and balance system
was a great design for our system of government.
There's also one more, which is federalism,
the balance of power, the check-in balance provided
between the states and the federal government.
The states themselves are bound by the provisions
of the United States Constitution,
so that limits the exercise of state power.
We have the supremacy clause in the Constitution,
which says that is the supreme law of the land
and that the states may not violate that law.
But then we also have the ability for the states
to check the federal government.
10th Amendment is one of the things
that was intended to do that.
That's been largely, unfortunately,
the courts have removed the power of the states.
We need to restore that, but also Article 5.
And we talk about this a lot, obviously,
because it's what we do every day for a living,
which is the ability of the states to propose amendments
and then ratify amendments to restrain federal ovaries
that's sort of the ultimate check-in balance.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it's one that most people I think don't think of
when they're thinking about checks and balances,
but Article 5 contains maybe the most important check
on the power of government.
And that is the constitutional amendment process.
Well, Rita, this is a preview of an episode that's coming up.
It's going to be coming up this Thursday, I believe.
And so this is a conversation between you, Mike Ferris.
And of course, our COS president, Mark Mechler,
all three of you are constitutional scholars.
So it's great that our audience will be able to get a real,
kind of deep understanding of what seems like federalism
and then checks and balances and separation of powers
and why the founding fathers developed these ideas
and put them within our founding documents.
Can you just comment a little bit on why Crossroads
maybe stopped for a little bit and why it's rebooting
and what you expect as you reboot Crossroads again
and start getting into these really high thinking ideas
and really start delving into things that are related
to our movement and growing our movement.
Sure.
Well, we did take a little bit of a break from Crossroads
over the summer partly because of summer travel schedules
and vacations, but also, frankly,
because working on the simulated convention
required so much of my time and attention,
I really just didn't have the bandwidth
to planning new Crossroads episodes over the summer.
So I'm really excited to be getting back into it.
Mark Mechler is my co-host for most of the programs.
You all, I'm sure, know that he travels a lot.
So sometimes I host Solo and just interview a guest,
but Mark co-hosts with me anytime he can.
And this first sort of kickoff program
for the new season of Crossroads
was really an honor of Constitution Week.
And I wanted to explore this topic of why is our US Constitution
worthy of celebration?
Why should we spend a week thinking about
and celebrating our Constitution?
What makes it special?
What makes it unique?
So if you're looking for sort of a 30-minute crash course
on the Constitution with a few constitutional lawyers,
this Crossroads episode is the one for you.
But really Andrew, the whole title of the program
is Crossroads where faith and culture meet.
So with this program, it's not every week
that we talk about convention of state specifically.
We talk about a lot of other issues
that are sort of hot button often controversial issues
in our culture, in our society.
Most of the time they do involve issues of public policy.
And Mark and I are interested in exploring
those current hot button controversial issues
and particularly public policy issues
from a Christian background
because our faith informs everything that we do.
So this program might not be for everyone,
but I'd encourage you to check it out, give it a listen,
especially this Constitution Week program.
And Mark and Mike both give their thoughts
at the end on how we should be celebrating
or honoring or commemorating Constitution Week.
So I hope y'all will check it out.
I hope you like it and let us know.
If you like it, share it.
Absolutely.
I love that blending faith and culture
as we've heard many times,
politics is downstream from culture.
So it's important to talk about it.
And I just love that you, Mark and COS generally,
we're not afraid to have these tough conversations
and talk about culture and get in the cultural vow
because that's where it is.
And we can't separate the two.
That's right.
They are both part of the same equation
so I'm glad that y'all are talking about that.
So for our audience, you can tune in.
There's the at 6 p.m. Eastern time
for the premiere of the new episode.
Rita's gonna be with Mark and with Mike Ferris.
So it'll be a really, really good episode
from what we saw from that two, three minute clip.
It's gonna be very educational
and very in-depth.
So I'm excited about that.
We have Rita.
We have one more video to show our audience.
Producer G has put together a two minute video.
Surprise, a special treat for us
and for the audience.
So Producer G, please play that video.
Well, this is the only nation in the history of the world
that stands for the proposition
that the people are sovereign.
Stand up and say no.
We won't stand for a despotic government.
Founding fathers gave the states this process
to use as a check and balance.
But one provision has never been used
and that's our article five convention.
And that's really why we're here
to see if that can work.
This simulation is going to, I think, reinforce everything
that's good about the Convention of States movement.
Showing how the process would work.
So we can come prepared to a convention and go to work.
We have delegates coming in from all over the country
from 49 of the 50 states.
And it shows the states are willing to come together
to reunite the United States.
Washington, DC, is broken in many instances.
Doesn't matter if they drive the machine to the left
or drive the machine to the right.
The machine is blowing smoke.
It doesn't matter if you're Democrat or independent Republican.
You know there's a problem.
It's the entrenched cabal that you will of power in Congress.
You've got to break up that power center.
We need term limits.
We've got to protect the people of the nation,
the citizens, their liberty.
Taking an axe to the root of the administrative state.
These are folks who understand what's at stake in the country.
People rise above the everyday.
The estate's been not a politician.
The discussion was fabulous.
The wisdom of the entire group really showed.
It was thoughtful.
I think they realized the potential.
A nation shaping, generational changing, kind of activity.
Our founders truly were brilliant.
To see that thing that was created by our founding fathers
and not yet used and actually see it start to bloom a little bit.
We do have the opportunity to unleash economic, environmental,
and constitutional renaissance in the United States.
I don't think there's a time that's more important than now.
I think it's time.
I think it's doable.
I think we should do it.
And I think we can do it.
We get serious.
To start holding the federal legislature accountable.
We can provide real lasting change and benefit to our nation.
Because people hope that there is a solution to the massive problems that we're facing.
If I consider this the most important work we can be doing in the United States.
Or we can actually do something.
I think once you get involved and you start seeing the processes
and the people involved, it becomes a no-brainer.
We are simply using the Constitution to save the Republic.
This is our time.
We can see.
It's going to be fun.
Wow, Rita, hats off to producer Jean's entire team
for putting together that video.
Incredible.
Man, that took me right back.
Boy, it made my skin tingle just thinking about being back in Colonial Williamsburg.
What about for you?
What was, maybe recap your experience or something like that as you were watching
that video?
Yeah, well, it gave me chills again.
And I warned producer G that he better not make me cry with this surprise video
because that has happened in the past.
This one didn't make me cry, but it gave me chills to be taken back to Colonial Williamsburg
and view those little pieces of the simulated convention again.
And I love hearing the inspiration in the voices of those commissioners
and also just leaders like Michael Ferris and Mark Mechler or Rick Santorum.
Just love hearing their inspiration and how this process, this Article V convention process
gives them and others hope that, yes, there is a meaningful solution.
And Andrew, if I had to sum it up, I would say it was summed up well by some of the outtakes
of the videos there, but the Article V convention for proposing amendments is a check-in balance
created by the founders and never yet used.
Just think about it for a minute.
We talked about it also in Crossroads for this week, for the Constitution Week program.
Article V convention to propose amendments is a check-in balance given to the states
to reign in the federal government and yet it's never been used.
Just let that sink in and I think it's just obvious that yes, we got to do this.
Andrew, any other thoughts about what you saw in that video?
Yeah, just one comment.
I love the people that were being interviewed.
You see their faces and they had just great little sound bites.
But those are the people or those are the America's statesmen.
And that's why, because we hear all the time that there are no more statesmen anymore,
the statesmen were part of the founding era and they've long gone now.
But that's not true.
The statesmen are at the local and the state level.
And those were some of the faces of America's statesmen.
And you know that they're America's statesmen because one, they would never claim to be statesmen
and two, they're not in the media 24-7.
They're behind the scenes working in their community, working with the people
to actually change and actually solve the issues that are glaring us right in the face right now.
And they're putting it all in the line.
And in my book, that makes you a statesman.
If you're willing to put it all in the line, you're not willing to take any credit
and you're willing to do the hard work that no one else is willing to do.
And you're willing to do it with the courage and character.
And that's what all of those people did.
And especially the ones that were being interviewed.
That's a little taste of America's statesmen right there.
So I love it.
Thank you, producer G, for putting that together.
We're running out of time very quickly, Rita.
We still have to get to the Article 5 trivia giveaway.
So let's go over to Mike Ruthenberg, who has the answer for our Article 5 trivia giveaway.
Mike, back to you.
Thank you so much, Andrew and Rita.
It's great to see you guys together again.
I'm sure everybody's really excited to have heard a lot of the things that you brought up.
There's always something new to learn, especially when you have those two that are hosting this great show.
And I'm going to give you the answer to our trivia question from earlier today.
And if you recall, the prize was a 10 pack of our COS Pocket Constitution.
It has the Declaration of Independence.
It has the amendments, not to mention the full text of the Constitution,
really handy to keep around.
It's certainly something that all of us should know, should be taught in school,
should be taught by families.
It's a great thing to have.
If you don't win, just go to shopcomensionestates.com and pick up a 10 pack, pick up a 25 pack of those
pocket constitutions.
They're very expensive, just slightly over a bucket piece.
And you can hand them out and give them to people who aren't so familiar with our Constitution.
It's amazing how enlightening it is to read that Constitution.
So our question for trivia today was why?
According to what our founding fathers put in the Declaration of Independence,
our governments institute, why our governments institute it.
And in other words, why a Constitution?
Well, the answer is to secure these rights.
What are these rights?
Well, we hold, this is straight from our Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain, unalienable rights,
that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
And to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely
to affect their safety and happiness.
And let's see here.
I'm going to move this a little bit.
You can see over my shoulder.
Oh, I don't need to move it right there.
Let's see, I can't really point there it is.
There's our Declaration of Independence right there hanging on my wall.
I do walk over to it and read it quite often.
It's fun to have there.
Remember, Article 5 is the embodiment.
Many of you know this because you're here.
You're great supporters of the Convention States Project.
Article 5 is the embodiment of the clause, the right of the people to alter,
with the goal of protecting the liberties of the people.
And I'm asking, have you read the Constitution?
Have you read one of these?
I'm not going to read the whole thing today for you, just Article 5.
But I encourage you to read the whole thing
by ordering our Pocket Constitution and Shop Convention States.
Open it up.
You probably have it.
Maybe you can Google it.
Easy, peasy to find.
Here's our favorite version of the Constitution,
or at least our favorite provision that we're working on,
which is Article 5, the Congress.
Whenever 2 thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary,
shall propose amendments to this Constitution,
or on the application of the legislatures of 2 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 other mode of ratification
may be proposed by the Congress,
provided that no amendment, which may be made prior to the year 1,808,
shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses
in the nice section of the first article,
and that no state without its consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage
in the Senate.
There's Article 5.
Chancellor, you've heard it before.
It's relatively simple.
It gives we the people the power to amend this Constitution the way it needs to,
especially should our government become tyrannical
because the other method of altering the Constitution or amend the Constitution
likely isn't going to happen through our legislature
if it's to prevent them from becoming tyrannical.
That's what I've got today.
Back to you, Rita. Back to you, Andrew, to wrap up the show.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks, Mike. Well, we're going to sign off.
Rita, we had an excellent program.
We'll be back next Tuesday with our guests
that we didn't have, unfortunately, this week.
Join us next Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time
for an interview with Congressman Burleson, up from Syria.
Don't forget to watch the Battle Pride with COS Co-Founder and President Mark Mechler.
That's on Sundays at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Then, of course, don't miss Crossroads.
This Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
Rita, we have a country to save those,
so it's time for us to get back to work.
Thank you for joining us, everyone.
Thank you for listening to today's program.
For information, please visit www.conventionofstates.com forward slash pod.
That's www.conventionofstates.com forward slash POD.