Once a generation, Connecticut residents have the opportunity to recreate history. This year, we can become the first state to opt out of all burdensome federal regulations by convening a historic constitutional convention.

Article XIII of the Connecticut Constitution spells it out: Once every 20 years, voters are presented with an option to reconvene. When we go to our voting booths this November, in addition to the usual election choices, we will also be asked:

"Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the State?"

At first this appears to be a useless procedure. The legislature can propose amendments to the state constitution at any time. So how is a convention different?

The best explanation comes from a bit of Connecticut history. The War of 1812, coming only a few decades after the Revolutionary War, found us embroiled in yet another war against the British. New England in general and Connecticut in particular opposed the economically ruinous war. Federal embargoes, intended to punish the British, harmed Connecticut merchants by outlawing international trade.

Representatives from all five New England states (Maine was still a part of Massachusetts) converged in Hartford in December of 1814 to discuss secession. The meetings over the next three weeks were secret. No records were kept.

In its final report, the Hartford Convention concluded the New England states had a duty to oppose unconstitutional federal incursions onto their sovereignty. They recommended five federal constitutional amendments that would prevent catastrophes like the War of 1812, including bans on embargoes lasting longer than 60 days, and a requirement for a two-thirds congressional majority to declare war.

And that is how a constitutional convention differs from mere amendments: A convention is formed with a single larger goal to determine the exact amendments required to achieve it.

The Hartford conventioneers knew they wanted to regain their sovereignty, either by seceding or by determining what changes needed to be made in the federal government—a sufficiently broad, deep and pressing enough goal to warrant a historic convention.

As it turns out, the Hartford Convention was rendered moot; just as the delegates arrived in Washington to negotiate with the president, news came that the war was over. If they had convened just a few months earlier, we would be freer today.

* 

Constitutional conventions can be called in many states by a legislative action, but Connecticut is unique in granting the general public that privilege, if only once every two decades. The question will be on the ballot on Nov. 4, and there is nothing any state legislator can do about it. If we vote for a convention, we will have one.

Why does Connecticut, of all states, have such a deep culture of self-representation and governmental distrust that a call for a convention is periodically required?

It is something in the Connecticut character. Our forefathers escaped religious persecution in England because they thought each independent church should set its own policy, rather than be told from above what to do and how to do it.

They were perhaps the first religious federalists.

A federalist, from the Latin word meaning "covenant," seeks to establish a legal relation between a group of independent governing bodies and a representative head. The United States is a federal system relating each independent state with the national government. That relationship is defined by the covenant known as the Constitution of the United States of America.

But in the intervening centuries, our federal government has encroached ever further into our midst. This year, we can say, "No more!" It is time for Connecticut to refederalize herself.

Population changes make Connecticut sovereignty even more important today. Connecticut alone has more residents today than all of America did in 1789, when we first federated. The education, health, and safety needs of southwestern Bridgeport, the state's largest city with nearly 150,000 people, are different from those of northeastern Union, the state's smallest with less than a thousand. Lower Fairfield County residents share more culturally with New York's Westchester County and New York City than they do with our Litchfield or New Haven counties. Colonial Yankees would be shocked to see this state of affairs and would insist that we refederalize immediately to make government more local.

What would it mean to refederalize Connecticut? As a first step, it means reinforcing the boundary between our state and the federal government. Matters of our transportation, education, health care, welfare, labor, and others were always meant to be decided here, not off in the nation's capital.

Our ever-growing national government got around the federal restriction in the last century by collecting a direct tax on the people, namely the income tax, and then offering to give some of that money back to states who comply with arbitrary federal rules. That's why, for example, the drinking age in every state is 21. Otherwise, the states with a lower drinking age would have been locked out of the federal transportation budget.

Many states make a killing this way. They take back more money from the federal government than their citizens are taxed. Not Connecticut—we get back only two-thirds of what we cough up.

We pay $10,500 per person and the state gets back roughly $7,000. But it's not a pure seven grand; it comes with a very thick noose: regulations. And it costs about $3,800 per person to implement those regulations. That means we're not really getting seven grand back out of the ten we are forced to pay, but closer to three.

Even then, where is that money going? More than $1,500 is just going to state and local governments, which are themselves too large. Another $2,700 is going to procurement, which basically means you and I won't see that money either.

Bottom line: The vast majority of us get back zero from the federal government. By opting out of the federal programs, Connecticut would be better off—even if the feds continue to extract their taxes.

Imagine the national uproar and international prestige if we opt out. Imagine the moral stance we could then take to demand that Washington lowers or eliminates various federal taxes. Imagine the pride of our Yankee forefathers. Imagine how much better your life would be if we could just refederalize.

Fairfield County could build more and wider highways with higher speed limits and with more affordable and reliable construction and maintenance, without the burdens of federal regulations. We wouldn't be handcuffed with No Child Left Behind and the incumbent worsening education. Without extraneous national labor regulations, we could establish our own laws to allow both more global companies to move here and for more small businesses to thrive.

This year is our time. 2008 is our opportunity. There is something liberating in the Connecticut air and it is our destiny to be able to continue that journey. Once a generation, we Connecticut residents have a chance to be free.