Friday, January 17, 2014

Null Set

A group of Tea Party folk who don’t like much of anything since Reconstruction are coming up with a solution: pass a Constitutional amendment that lets a small group of disgruntled whackos overturn the Constitution.

That’s basically the dream of conservative activist Charles Kacprowicz, as described in a recent conference call with supporters, effectively summing up many of the deepest hopes and fears of right-wing America in the post-Bush era.

“The best that we have now is the idea of nullification. But the states right now do not have a provision in the Constitution that allows them to countermand laws,” Kacprowicz said. But he’s crafted a proposal that would change all that. “With this provision, in the Sovereignty and States Rights Amendment, they can countermand it, and they can disallow it when 30 states say ‘let’s stop.’ ”

Naturally, Kacprowicz had a red meat example close at hand. “Obamacare right now has at least 26 states who have already filed lawsuits against the government for imposing on them the tax and the imposition of Obamacare on the states,” he continued. “That’s already going forward. So you have that right there. We need four more states and Obamacare is history. And so that’s the kind of power that this has in this sovereignty amendment.”

[…]

Of course, nullification is unconstitutional. The text of Article VI is crystal clear:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.  [emphasis added]

The stark disconnect between textual reality and the “constitutional” rhetoric of today’s Tea Party-era conservatism could hardly be clearer.

Naturally, these geniuses don’t think of the other side of this possibility: that a small minority of people could rise up and invalidate a whole bunch of federal laws that the righties might be in favor of, such as all those federal gun protections the NRA has whooped into law.  I wonder how they would like them apples.

Aside from the fact that this is your basic case of tantrum foot-stomping, it shows us that we really need to spend more money on education in this country, because obviously we’re not getting through to the Elmer Fudd crowd.

HT to NTodd.

2 barks and woofs on “Null Set

  1. Unfortunately, the Rethuglicans LIKE people stupid enough to buy their line of bullshit; thus they will continue to gut the education budget whenever possible. Because yeah, Julie has it right…nullified brains are the goal.

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