After Conyers’ resignation, 31 percent of House members are already serving in their seventh term or greater. Many more would dearly like to join those ranks. With that sort of membership, it seems impossible to expect the House to pass anything like the 1995 proposal.

The makeup of the Senate is similar. Trump and Conyers both purport to represent the Unprotected but each is, himself, a member of a very Protected group. Trump, at least, is term-limited by the 22nd Amendment.

Our Founding Fathers may not have anticipated Conyers or Trump, but they did anticipate a federal government that would be reluctant to limit its own power. Although we have never seen fit to use it, the Constitution contains a provision for calling a constitutional convention. When Congress refuses to act, the states may do so. Some have already, through their legislatures, demanded just such a convention.