Washington Post: The biggest threat to democracy that nobody is talking about

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“It’s actually one of the biggest threats to our democracy that most people have never heard about.”

That threat is a constitutional convention called by the states. The last time such a thing happened was in 1787. So messy was that affair that it hasn’t been done since. But a renewed effort is underway, an effort that Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, told me was the one issue that kept her up at night.

Conservatives are pushing to call an Article V convention to add a balanced-budget amendment and other ideas to the Constitution. All they need is the approval of 34 state legislatures (no governor’s signature needed) to compel Congress to call such a gathering. Right now, 28 states have passed resolutions calling for an Article V convention. That number would be 32 had Common Cause and other groups, such as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, not successfully gotten Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico and Nevada to rescind their resolutions. Still, once the 34-state hurdle is cleared, despite pledges of a discrete, narrow focus, no one knows what could happen.