We need a Convention of the States to restore our government to its constitutional foundation, to turn back the Progressive agenda of a strong centralized government and the related tyranny that it engenders.

For example, we need to repeal the 17th Amendment. The Constitution’s method for selecting senators is appointment by the states’ legislatures. This was adopted after strenuous debate to ensure that states’ rights would not be subsumed by a centralized national government. Its purpose: the people of the states would have, through their locally elected state legislatures, a check against both the popularly elected president and the rapidly changing House of Representatives.

Let’s take, for example, Sen. Susan Collins. She has taken this oath of office four times: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Right now we have a domestic enemy; it is the president and his administration.

Yet Sen. Collins thought it was a good idea to travel to Selma on Air Force One with the president and recently voted for the appointment of Loretta Lynch as attorney general. Even though traveling with the president gives the appearance of agreement with his ideologies and Loretta Lynch gave sworn testimony that clearly indicated she has no intention of defending our Constitution or our country regarding illegal immigration, Collins continually does this under the cloak of “bipartisanship.”

When she does these things, she is not representing Maine. Collins is representing her political interests and the interests of the Democratic Party, along with the dismal leadership of the Republican Party.

This is why we now urgently need a Convention of the States: to propose amendments to the Constitution, without involving Washington, and to right this sinking ship which is our country.

Mark Kilburn

Portland

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