ST. GEORGE – About 20 people attended the Washington County Constitution Party convention and caucus Tuesday evening at the Washington County Commission chambers.
“Our Constitution Party is for people who love the Constitution and think that should be the law of the land,” party chair Patti Ehrheart said. “No messin’ with it, no taking stuff out of it, just the Constitution the way it was given to us.”
Ehrheart said efforts to reinvigorate membership in the Constitution Party in Washington County are essential.
“We’re rebuilding our party. It used to be a really vibrant party, there was (sic) at least 2,500 members right here in town,” Ehrheart said.
“The people fell away, and we’re just trying to find them again and make a viable party because both of the major parties now are going to crash and burn. And we want those people to have a place to land.”
At the meeting, delegates were chosen for the party’s state convention, which will be held in April. Party officers for the coming year were also chosen.
The Constitution Party favors the restoration of the Constitution to its original form, committee member David Hinton said, including limited federal power. Hinton said that originally the people were supposed to have the power and the states would control the federal government through the Senate. He said:
When the 17th Amendment was passed, the power of the states was given to the federal government. And so the states, really, have no power anymore. We kind of think they do — they act like they do — but in reality, the federal government does not listen to them very often.
The 17th Amendment modified Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution by allowing voters to cast direct votes for U.S. senators. Prior to its passage, senators were chosen by state legislatures.
“The Constitution Party is trying to educate the American public to what Constitution principles were that the founding fathers used to try and bring us back to some semblance of sanity in our government,” Hinton said.
Hinton was a member of the Republican Party for many years but said he finally gave up on it.
“There are a lot of Republicans that are not happy with their own party,” he said, “but they don’t know how to change it.”
Other tenets of the Constitution Party include limiting protecting the borders and not offering amnesty, ensuring the right to bear arms, repealing the federal income tax and withdrawing from the United Nations.
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