NASHUA, N.H. – Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum had one core message for assembled Republicans at the Courtyard by Marriott Event Center on Friday night: the country needs a national constitutional convention before it is too late.
Highlighting the slate of speakers in the Nashua Republican City Committee’s annual Steak-Out fundraiser event, Santorum expressed the need such a convention to devolve powers accumulated by the federal government to state governments. He said if this does not happen, then the next time Democrats have control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they will expand the U.S. Supreme Court, incorporate the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states and do other things to ensure that Republicans would never win another election.
This method for amending the U.S. Constitution, found in Article Five of the U.S. Constitution, requires two-thirds of the state legislatures (34) to call for a convention to propose amendments. It has never been used in U.S. history, with all amendments initiated by a two-thirds vote of both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
Santorum told the crowd that despite the lack of precedent, it is the best path toward limiting the expansion of federal government that rose after the ratification of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed the direct election of U.S. Senators. Before that point, Santorum said that the federal government was limited in the number of things that it did as U.S. Senators did not need to justify themselves to voters every six years.
“They did the things that are necessary, but they didn’t say ‘oh, my neighbor’s dogs bark, let’s pass a federal law’,” he said.
He expressed frustration with the New Hampshire legislature not having done this already, urging the need for immediate action given the lack of national institutions that he says still generally support conservative values.
“In four years, we could lose our Republic,” he said. “And I don’t want to come back to New Hampshire and tell you that you got it wrong.”
However, he also stated that there is cause of hope given the recent trend of Democrats to gravitate toward voters with at least bachelor’s degrees, which make up only approximately 30 percent of the country’s population.
Additionally, he was pleased with the fact that Donald Trump has embodied many of the principles he espoused in his book “Book Collar Conservatives,” telling the crowd that Trump actually told him in person that he liked Santorum’s book. Santorum felt that Trump’s celebrity has helped spread the message of the book in a way other politicians could not.
Nashua GOP Chairman John Cawthron said he was pleased with the event, which also included speeches from Congressional Candidate Lily Tang Williams, U.S. Senate Candidate Scott Brown and State Representative and New Hampshire Turning Point Spokesperson Lisa Mazur in addition to raising money for the Nashua Republican City Committee.
Cawthron agreed with Santorum’s push for an Article Five convention to rein in the federal government and urged Republicans in Concord to stop listening to party leaders opposed to such a convention.
“We need the leadership of the Republican Party in New Hampshire to embrace (Article Five), the constitutional convention, and stop pressuring state representatives to vote against it,”
