Monday, March 22, 2010

ObamaCare: Secession or Nullification?

This past weekend's passage of "Healthcare Reform" in the House has been followed by much weeping and gnashing of teeth (not to mention a moderate surge in the ranks of the Texas Secede! Facebook page.).

Many folks seem to be fretting over some combination of the further erosion of personal liberty and responsibility, the additional economic devastation and tax burden, the stark imposition of top-down state socialism, or simply an apparent triumph on the part of the Democrats.

Many voices in Texas are calling freshly for secession as the logical response — but perhaps it's still too early...

Right now, unlike any other time in US history, a nullification movement has taken hold — and is growing — in most of the US states, including Texas. This means there is a strong, public-centered, and legally-informed opposition to the bloated despotism reigning in Washington, and a growing intent to invoke the Consitution itself to tell both the White House and Congress that their "federal laws" are null and void wherever they cross the line drawn by the Tenth Amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
State legislatures across the country have enacted resolutions, bills, and acts warning Washington that the people and the states are fed up with the power- and money-grabbing habits of the bipartisan monopoly that's dominated US politics and government for over a century.

Perhaps secession is not the only option at this moment — and it may well be avoidable if the nullification route has its constitutionally intended effect — which is to not only stop the Washington behemoth in its tracks, but also to put it back within the limits unambiguously defined by the Constitution itself.

Texans would do well these days to check out the Tenth Amendment Center and get involved right here in Texas. Austin and Governor Perry should know Texans want Washington's meddling tentacles kept out of Texas. This calls for a resolve in Austin to get each of Washington's unconstitutional activities (i.e., most of them) out of Texas, starting with a big "NO" to top-down federally mandated socialized healthcare.

ObamaCare is only the most recent in a long line of DC's despotic assaults on the people of Texas and their liberty and property. It will take a few years for Washington to start implementing it, if it even survives the many legal challanges already lining up for it among the several states. Meanwhile, secession will always remain an optional response to this accumulated conglomeration of unlawful federal impositions.

But a unified voice from the people of Texas, offically delivered to DC from Austin, could go a long way towards not only stopping ObamaCare, but turning back the tide on innumerable other usurpations Washington has been foisting on Texans over the years.

Just imagine, for example, how empty would be threat of withheld (unconstitutional) federal "aid" to Texas, in the face of Texas' refusal to allow the collection of Washington's (unconstitutional) taxes on Texans and their property in the first place. The feds would be deprived not only of both the carrot and the stick, but also a pony to ride on — leaving Texans to enjoy their lives, liberty, and property in peace.

...and if that can't be had within the union, we can still leave.

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