by Justin Fiorille, Secretary, Wolf-PAC 527 Board of Directors
July 10, 2023
There’s a FIRE! Our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are on FIRE!
Imagine if a serial arsonist ran through our neighborhoods night after night, lighting everything important to our society on fire. They return relentlessly, burning the schools, the parks, the local businesses, the hospitals — everything essential to our lives. What would we do? Clearly, our first concern would be putting out the fires. Every night first responders would be on the streets hosing down buildings and rescuing those in danger. Every morning, we’d need to get to work rebuilding our neighborhood. We’d need to rebuild the education system, the environment, the small businesses, the healthcare system — everything the arsonist burned. Sadly, rebuilding projects aren’t immune to the arsonist’s touch, and many would be alight with flames before we ever finished building them. We’d never be able to keep up.
Clearly, we need to catch this arsonist and stop them from lighting fires! Catch them and declare loudly, “You are done corrupting and destroying our society!” With the destruction stopped at its source, we could then rebuild and revitalize our society. Since becoming a volunteer with Wolf-PAC seven years ago, I often found this analogy running in my head. I want to stop that arsonist. Of course, the arsonist is the corrupting influence of dark money and special interests on our government. The burned buildings are everything we care about. Over and over, corruption hijacks our government, with lawmakers paid to work against our interests. We the People have lost proper representation in our government. We must absolutely take back that representation.
Catching the Arsonist
Several years ago I became aware that I was in a clear majority of Americans that feel our government doesn’t represent us properly. I was also in the majority in thinking there was nothing I could do about it. On the first point, I was right; on the second, I thankfully learned I was wrong! When I heard about Wolf-PAC’s goal to amend the U.S. Constitution to achieve real campaign finance reform, I was initially on board in the same way I passively supported other similar efforts. Then I considered volunteering.
Solution with Safety Net
On joining Wolf-PAC, my first thought was to check out their proposed amendment to see whether I agreed with it. Then I found it doesn’t exist – Wolf-PAC trusts the process. That was my first lesson on how a different path to amending the Constitution works. While Wolf-PAC supports all means towards achieving the amendment, we specialize our efforts solely on the Article V convention to propose it. According to the Constitution, when 2/3 of states call for a convention for proposing amendments, delegates will attend that convention to draft and propose language. We have confidence in the convention process, especially because 3/4 of states must ratify anything proposed. With this ratification safety net, we can bypass our do-nothing, corrupt Congress.
I had previously learned that reaching out to my congressional representative will get me a generic form letter response at best. But after joining Wolf-PAC, I found that my state legislators were not like members of Congress. They would take my call and even set aside time to meet me face to face. That difference is immense. State legislatures provide a working path to success.
Tapping into Real Constitutional Expertise
I’m a mechanical engineer by trade, graduating from the University of Akron in 2009. This taught me two major things I didn’t realize I was learning. First, I graduated with the worst timing during a major economic recession – but that’s a story for another time. Second, I became an expert at realizing when and where I’m not an expert. That’s essential in developing skills for staying well informed. The rest is deciphering which expert sources I can trust for reliable information.
Wolf-PAC is such a source. With access to legal experts, we’ve built a reliable knowledge base on the amendment process. This includes analysis by authorities such as the Department of Justice, Congressional Research Service, American Bar Association, and constitutional scholars such as Ronald Rotunda. Sparing the details for now, these entities all studied the process with subject matter experts and unanimously concluded that the Article V amendment-proposing process is reliable and constitutionally safe. This level of scrutiny and expertise makes my engineer brain feel good.
Sharing My Commitment
That’s why I’m committed to Wolf-PAC’s efforts. With literal Canadian fires smoking up our lives right now, nearly everybody understands that these figurative fires are burning this country to the ground. Only a constitutional amendment can repair our money-corrupted system. Our Founding Fathers presented this path to reform, and the best experts on the amendment process have confirmed that this path is valid. There’s nothing left but for us to make it happen.
Acknowledgements
The Wolf-PAC all-volunteer Communications Team helped produced this work, including editing by Khadija Fouad, Brian Martel and Debbie Augustine.