Cooch: Nobody Should Be Surprised At What I'm Doing

Virginia is for Nullifiers (0.00 / 0)

We should change the license plates, now that our AG informs us that we voted him in to rein in the federal government.

Do I have the right word for that, this reining in of the federal government by a state?  Does "nullification", you know, the theory that, when put into practice, resulted in the Civil War, mean anything else than this idea that it is the proper place of a state legislature, and a state AG, to set the limits that the Congress of the United States cannot cross?

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by: Glen Tomkins @ Tue Apr 13, 2010 at 17:53:16 PM UTC

Of course (0.00 / 0)

you have it correct, that it is the states individually, severally, collectively, that decide what the limits of the federal government are and should be now and forevermore, amen. If not they, then who? The People? The Supreme Court? God? Mother Nature?

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by: Teddy Goodson @ Tue Apr 13, 2010 at 22:06:50 PM UTC

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We the people (0.00 / 0)

...put whatever limits on the federal govt that it requires, by electing our representatives to Congress and the presidency.  They in turn appoint justices to the federal bench, which we can turn to if we as individuals feel that the majority is trampling our individual rights.

We have no need for the states to interpose in any step in this process of securing our rights and limiting the federal govt.  And to have the states interpose, to dispute the sovereignty of the one govt of the one country we all belong to, is not ony unnecessary to securing our rights, it creates a clear and present danger of disunion, of war among and between different levels of govt, all claiming a sovereignty that cannot be divided.

It is certainly true that the Constitution leaves open, in several of its provisions, doors to disunion.  It does indeed attempt to square the circle and divide what cannot be divided, sovereignty.  The Founders had to leave these doors in the document, or the original 13 states would not have come into a Union.  

But for anyone to go through these doors, to even play at nullification as our AG is doing, for anything less than the most serious and weighty reasons, in any circumstances other than the breakdown of all other ways that we the people have to secure our rights, and limit the federal govt, when disunion will certainly lead to war and death on a massive scale, is the height of irresponsibility.  The last time Virginia went through that door, it was not ot preserve the threatened liberty of Virginians, it was to preserve slavery.  Admittedly, this time the cause over which nullifiaction is threatened is not itself evil -- I don't particularly like Obamacare myself -- but it's still incomprehensibly foolish to bring in nullification over Obamacare.

Let me suggest a way that sane, responsible people who oppose Obamacare can keep the federal govt from implementing it, a method that doesn't involve nullification.  Vote in a new Congress this year.  Convince the people, or just enough of them to get a majority on this closely divided issue, that Obamacare, for whatever reason, is a bad idea, and that they need to vote in a Congress that will do in Obamacare.  That's probably a better idea than doing in the Union.    

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by: Glen Tomkins @ Tue Apr 13, 2010 at 22:49:10 PM UTC

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