Wisconsin GOP Aims For Secession And Nullification Powers
The Huffington Post | by Amanda Terkel
The Wisconsin Republican Party will be voting this weekend on whether it endorses the right to secede from the rest of the country and nullify any federal law, a clear departure from the legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
Daniel Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that delegates at the state Republican convention will consider a measure on Saturday "that directs lawmakers to push through legislation nullifying Obamacare, Common Core educational standards and 'drone usage in the state of Wisconsin.'"
It also asserts the right, "under extreme circumstances," to secede from the United States of America.
Secession and nullification are not new ideas. In fact, they're what Lincoln was fighting against as he tried to preserve the union. In the 1830s, South Carolina created a national crisis when it tried to nullify a federal tariff with which it disagreed and threatened to secede. The doctrine of nullification was no good after the Civil War, but some Southern states advocated a similar philosophy after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools.
The Wisconsin resolution is opposed by many Republicans in the state, including Gov. Scott Walker (R). Walker is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016, and it would be tough to run for president if your state isn't even part of the country.
Conservative Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes has called the resolution "crackpotism on steroids."
"We fought a war over this, didn't we?" Sykes added. "It didn't work out well for the supporters of nullification and secession."
Bice also points out that it would be impossible for state legislators to accomplish some of what is proposed in the measure.
The Common Core education standards, for instance, aren't federal law; Wisconsin voluntarily went along with them.
But for some, the Civil War did nothing to settle these issues. Mike Murphy, a member of the Wisconsin GOP's executive committee, argued that "secession is as American as apple pie."
1 comment:
We are the Tea Party movement. Our goals:
1. Take back the country, because we refuse to be associated with it so long as that black, foreign-born, socialist Muslim is living in the White House.
2. Return to the values and tenets of our Founding Fathers. If they wanted Civil Rights Acts in America, why did so many own slaves? If they believed that women and ethnic minorities should be able to vote, then why didn't they include these rights in their final draft of the U.S. Constitution?
3. Destroy "ObamaCare", because the government has no business regulating the private health care insurance industry. And because the government has no right to kill grandma. That's the job of your HMO or PPO. And by the way, keep your filthy hands off my Medicare coverage!
4. Create a smaller government, because the feds have no business telling Americans what do to ... unless you're gay, or you need an abortion, or you wish to obtain contraceptives.
5. Demonstrate our support for the health and well-being of women … by greatly reducing affordable access to breast cancer screenings and other preventative health care resources, … by defining rape and any ensuing pregnancy as an "act of God", … by defunding programs dealing with domestic violence against women, … and by requiring women to "spread them" and provide a womb with a view for Uncle Sam.
6. Deny the impact of human activity on climate change. Because everyone knows that if global warming is real, it's simply "God's will".
7. Make Christianity the official religion and English the official language of the United States, because native English-speaking, Christian folks are the only truly patriotic Americans.
8. Destroy labor unions, because besides the 40-hour work week, paid vacation time, workers' compensation, sick days, overtime pay, regulations regarding workplace health and safety conditions, health benefits, pension plans, etc. … what have they ever done for the typical American wage earner?
9. Stop spending so much money! Except when we need to invade another country that pisses us off. Or if it's done to support programs and policies that help to further our own political agendas.
10. Reduce the deficit ... at the same time that we're gonna give kickbacks to the lobbyists and huge tax breaks to all of those corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals that helped to finance our little "party".
11. Embrace an economic scorched earth policy approach to reducing the national debt. Because if Congress refuses to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we'll do everything in our power to destroy the economic viability of the nation. Negotiation and compromise is not in our repertoire -- It's our way or the highway.
12. To demonstrate our commitment to our sacred U.S. Constitution, we strive to eliminate those Amendments that conflict with our ideology and simply ignore other sections that we find inconvenient to honor.
13. To demonstrate our patriotic love for this nation, we propose to secede from the Union.
14. And if you won't let us attain our goals by electing us to office ... well, we can always resort to "Second Amendment remedies".
Any questions?
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