Rapidly growing support for the “Repeal Amendment” – a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow a vote by two-thirds of the states to repeal an act of Congress — symbolizes the intense level of anger Americans have with Washington, according to observers.
In September, Virginia stood alone as the only state where leaders in the state legislature had shown an interest in passing the amendment, but that number has now grown to nine states.
State legislators in South Carolina, Florida, Utah, Indiana, Texas, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Georgia have since expressed interest in the amendment.
Hits on the RepealAmendment.org website have mushroomed over the past month, and the amendment has garnered support from Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, and soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, according to “Repeal Amendment” executive director Marianne Moran.
Moran also sees future opportunities for legislative support in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Dakota, among others.
“It just restores the balance of government between the states and the federal government as the founding fathers had originally intended,” Moran said. “The fact we have nine states already onboard shows the momentum, and I think the groundswell [of support] is the Tea Party.”
Moran continued: “The reason we have the support from all of the people we do in all of these legislatures is that the people who have been groundswelling for the last two years want limited government, and this amendment is all about limited government.”
Pennsylvania Tea Party activist Ana Puig, who has started working with Moran to get the amendment introduced in her state, said the amendment has a lot to offer.
“It would bring back power to the states, and with everything … that the federal government has tried shoving down our throats it is imperative that we give power from the ground up and not from federal government down,” Puig said.
She believes the amendment will gain even more support as increasing numbers of Tea Partiers find out about it.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen told The Daily Caller he would likely find overwhelming support from most Americans were he to conduct a poll on support for the “Repeal Amendment.”
“It really reflects an electorate that is frustrated, and a lot of the people that have not been involved in the process before [are] not sure what needs to be done, and they’re pretty upset about [the health care] law,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen believes Tea Party activists and most Americans have a shared desire for lower taxes and reduced spending in addition to a shared belief that politicians hold them in contempt. This sentiment, he said, has caused proposals like the “Repeal Amendment” to gain traction.
“There is no trust in government, and until that is restored there is no way to move forward,” Rasmussen said. “This is tapping into that same mindset.
“Twenty-one percent of Americans today believe the federal government has the consent of the governed,” Rasmussen continued. “Fifty-nine percent believe government has become a threat to individual liberty.”
The “Repeal Amendment” and other similar ideas have developed in reaction to decades of politicians who have promised to restrain the size of government, but who have failed to deliver, Rasmussen said
Socialism is not the Answer 