Who We Are Article V Con! is presented in more-or-less of a study guide format. It consists of short articles that contain information from people much smarter than I am with links to the sources. It begins with the “blog” in May 2015 that was prompted by my being invited to a meeting of Constitutional Advocates (seriously, the name of the group) where a pro-Article V Convention lawyer would present his case for the Compact For America-sponsored Balanced Budget Amendment. I received the invitation at a public forum (also sponsored by the Constitutional Advocates) assembled to spread the word about the dangers of Common Core. As I sat there taking notes, I noticed on my page some chicken scratches of “Con Con” and “Com Core” and realized that, not only were their names similar, the origins of both of them were interconnected. I went home and re-read “Poison Drops in the U. S. Senate” and started this webpage.
About me: When I was in high school (in the 1960’s), I enjoyed those kitchen table talks with my father about politics, society, world events. We often had opposite opinions on these topics. My father worked at a factory and was a union steward for many years before becoming a company supervisor. I remember him painting signs for a strike when I was a kid. When I became old enough to register to vote (21 in those days), I realized that my views aligned more with the Republican Party than my father’s Democrat Party. That began a thirty-year partnership with a Party that never won an election in my state. West Virginia was controlled by the Democrats from the 1930’s until the Republicans got their big electoral wins in 2014.
I eventually worked at the phone company and became a member of Communication Workers of America. I totally supported the union’s efforts to save jobs, improve working conditions and wages and to keep employer-provided insurance. However, I strongly disagreed with their stand on social and political issues. I recall an article in a union newsletter that listed “recommended TV programs.” They included such shows as “Roseanne” and “The Simpsons”—shows that would be on my “trash” list. A co-worker asked me once—during the Bill Clinton presidency—how I could be a “working person” and be a Republican. I asked him how he could claim to be a “moral person” and be a Democrat.
The unions turned out to be as false as the political parties. In fact, when it came to the trade agreements NAFTA and GATT, the Union was neutral/quiet about the first one and actively supported the second one, even though they were going to be job-killers. I called the CWA National Secretary in Washington, D.C., Barbara, and asked why they weren’t opposing them and she assured me that I must be mistaken. Well, was I?
In the early 1990’s, I learned of the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party and—I think it was 1992—I voted for the Party’s founder, Howard Phillips, for U. S. President. The Republican Party no longer represented my views—political, moral or otherwise. After the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party became the Constitution Party, I changed my voter’s registration and have worked with the Constitution Party of W. Va. for the past several years.