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So you still think Congress will save you?

The latest government shutdown will shatter the nation’s faith in Congress.

Congress can’t even make a budget work — why do we expect them to save liberty for future generations?

The federal government officially closed on October 1 after deadlocked Republicans and Democrats in Congress fell short of an agreement to keep the lights on after funding expired at midnight. (Read all about it here.) For those of us who disfavor the federal government’s multi-billion-dollar-per-day spending apparatus, the media hoopla surrounding Washington’s temporary closure may seem a bit dramatic. But for potentially hundreds of thousands of federal workers and their families, who will suffer the consequences, and voters whose faith in their elected officials will be rocked, the shutdown remains an unfortunate crisis, not to mention a humiliating spectacle.

We elect our politicians to work for us; the fact that they can’t even keep the government open is more than a bit discouraging. As one disillusioned independent voter aptly noted, “They’re just fighting like two little kids.”

“This makes no sense to me,” reacted Senator Jerry Moran after the Senate failed on Tuesday to pass a last-ditch funding measure. “Every city council or commission, every school board, every local government office in my state passes a budget and then lives within that budget every year. Every local unit of government at home can figure this out, and the United States Senate is failing one more time.”

Of course, the Republicans and Democrats appear more interested in blaming each other for the shutdown than actually resolving the conflict. (Never let a good crisis go to waste, right?) But regardless of who you believe is at fault, one thing should be clear to all of us: Washington isn’t coming to our rescue. Structural reforms must originate with “We the People,” or they will not appear at all.

Expecting politicians to solve our problems (and then faulting them when they don’t) has become a convenient political crutch — a tired deflection that masks our own responsibility and shifts blame to an institution fundamentally ill-equipped to meet the challenges of our time. Trillions of dollars in national debt, rampant insider trading, seemingly never-ending political careers, and an overbearing administrative state demand answers. Congress won’t be the one to give them to us.

Convention of States provides the perfect solution. Our organization recognizes that the federal government is out of touch, corrupted, and broken. But rather than turning politicians into the scapegoats, we believe that the solution lies in embracing self-governance.

After all, if we’re all willing to admit that Congress is a circus, worthy of derision and contempt, why do we keep waiting for the clowns to save us? We can only blame external forces for so long. Eventually, if the country continues down the wrong path and we remain passive, we become complicit.

Convention of States serves as a magnifying glass and a mirror. It holds the magnifying glass up to Washington for closer scrutiny and accountability. But then, it holds the mirror up to the critic and forces him to answer, “What am I going to do about it?”

What are you going to do about it?

Ronald Reagan warned about parents and grandparents who will spend their “sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” If — God forbid — that day ever arrives, a small comfort it will be to inform posterity that Congress is entirely to blame and we did nothing about it. Reckless deficit spending, $37 trillion in national debt, an aristocratic class of career politicians, and a Constitution-averse federal establishment threaten to implode our country: this week’s government shutdown should shatter the delusion that we can count on Congress to work it out.

So which will it be?

Will we trust America’s future into the hands of a failed federal government, or will we take action, as self-governing citizens, to save liberty for future generations?

The answer should be obvious.

To show your support for the grassroots organization dedicated to using Article V of the U.S. Constitution to impose term limits, fiscal restraints, and other restrictions on federal power, sign the Convention of States petition below and volunteer today!

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Created:	2025-10-01 22:38 GMT
Updated:	2025-10-08 07:00 GMT
Published:	2025-10-01 22:00 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:06 GMT
Change Author:	Jakob Fay
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