It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.” Nullification Part 2
on July 27th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance. Thomas Huxley
Huxley’s quote is fabulous and especially telling in this nullification update. In Nullification Part 1, I discussed one of the biggest criticisms of nullification; that nullification is out of date. I showed the successful action to nullify the Real ID act, that went WAY back to….2009. And that action is still tying up the federal government in knots to a point where they have stopped the implementation of this law.
In this article, I write about the other issue that is used to reject use of nullification: the attempted use of nullification by Southern states in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1956, over 100 lawmakers signed off on the “Southern Manifesto” that reads very much like a Tea Party document, filled with Constitutional references and appeals to the 10th Amendment.
It is certainly one of the low points of the use of nullification. Why? Well it is simple.
What they were fighting for was the continued oppression of minority groups. In this case, the state tried to use nullification to do something inherently and morally reprehensible and the Federal government stepped in and rightly ended Jim Crow. The document asserts repeatedly (and accurately) that the Supreme Court consistently upheld the “separate but equal” rule for decades after the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
But what the Supreme Court approved, and what was implemented in the South was never in keeping with the principle that all men are created equal.
No matter who is defending evil, whether it is a state or the federal government, the principles remain WHAT matters. And that is what good men in the civil rights movement fought and died to make real.
On the other hand…
One might call Wisconsin’s nullification action in the 1850’s in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act the high point of nullification. A state repeatedly and effectively stood its ground in opposition to the Federal government’s inherently wicked Fugitive Slave Law. Is there anyone out there that would not be sympathetic to Wisconsin’s efforts in opposition to slavery?
What the states were defending was the principle that all men are created equal. The federal government was the oppressor. Those that make the argument that nullification is always wrong have to accept two premises we know are false:
- Wisconsin was wrong to oppose the fugitive slave act
- The Federal government is never on the wrong side of an issue
Fast-forward to today. With a Federal government that is:
- Destroying the economic freedom of its citizens through reckless borrowing and an unholy alliance with the private bankers of the Federal Reserve
- Destroying civil liberties through attempts to gut the 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendments
- Destroying the fabric of society through purposefully increasing the dependence on financially bankrupt social programs
- Destroying the unity of our nation by attempting to use race, income and sex to divide our nation’s citizens into balkanized factions.
Who’s the oppressor now? That is easy: The Federal Government. And most people seem to realize this as Congress has an approval rate of 11%. The problem is who is going to fight the Federal government? New Congressmen? Since the incumbents who helped bring about this debacle are winning re-election at an 86% clip, it is hard to see how THAT is going to happen.
It falls on the states. And as a friend of mine told me the other day, “news flash Chip, the state government is just as corrupt as the Feds.” It’s no news flash to me, as I have been writing about that repeatedly on our site.
But while they may be, in many cases, corrupt, they are also much easier to pressure into a vote. Witness the 2010 efforts that led to the Health Care Freedom Act in Richmond. 3000 angry protesters and constant phone calls to legislators got that bill passed in Richmond, which nullified the Obamacare mandate.
So it comes back to pressure. Are people willing to stand up and demand that their state legislators do their job, which is primarily to protect our rights and to uphold the HCFA?
Do they even know this is an option? Many more will if we can bring the Nullify Now Tour to Roanoke. Please consider a generous pledge today. Even just a $10 pledge will get you a ticket to the event and help us inform and educate people about this effective tool for putting the Federal Government back into its proverbial box.
We may all be old and gray before we can cut through the thicket of corporate corruption that protects the status quo in Washington. If there is indeed enough time for us to get much older or grayer before the wheels come off our national bus.
So please pledge today. What is at stake is freedom.
Chip Tarbutton
