Mississippi State Capitol – 1 (Photo credit: StuSeeger)
The United States Pledge of Allegiance reads as follows:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
We recited it every morning in elementary school. I recited it the day I became a naturalized citizen. It’s an important piece of our civic commitment to flag and country.
There are a couple of key phrases that stand out here, of course – but among them are “one Nation” and “indivisible.” These are key components of this oath and patriotism.
But you wouldn’t know it if you talked to some Tea Party folk, especially down in the South. We’ve already been through the online petitions to secede after the election, but now we’ve got something new, I think I’ll call it, tentatively, secession-lite:
Tea Party-affiliated state legislators in Mississippi are pushing a bill called the “Mississippi Balance of Powers Act” to set up a state committee that would decide which federal laws the state shall abide by, according to The Dispatch.
Let that sink in. The legislature in the poorest state in the United States, which also happens to benefit from some of the highest levels of federal aid among the states, wants to be able to pick and choose what federal laws will be enforced within state lines.
I don’t even know where to begin with this. The Constitution rules the federal government’s laws as supreme over states’. That’s enshrined in the Constitution. As a Stanford University law professor told the HuffPost, states may reject federal programs along with federal funding, but they cannot reject federal laws. That would be unconstitutional – that big fancy word Tea Party legislators like to throw around every time President Obama blinks or turns his head quickly.
Mississippi state lawmakers were considering this earlier because of their opposition to Obamacare, but now with the gun debate at hand and Obama’s executive actions on gun control, it’s resurfaced.
But what’s hilarious about it is that they are claiming to be standing up against tyranny and for the right to bear arms but nobody is taking those arms away. I really wonder if some of the people so vehemently opposed to the gun control measures the president is advocating for have even bothered to pay attention to what his actions and recommendations actually do.
Because, honestly, all I’m hearing is ardent defense of the Second Amendment from the clutches of Obama but nothing more concrete than that – they don’t mention a single one of his orders in their diatribes against gun control. Which, again, begs the question, do they actually know what they’re even raging against? Or maybe they’re so opposed to it because of the most important reason of all – they’re Tea Party; he’s Obama.
As far as state sovereignty goes, maybe I’m missing a piece or two of the puzzle. But it just sounds to me like they basically want to secede over guns but still get all the aid money the federal government bestows upon them. I mean, really, they want to reject federal laws but I wonder if, in the name of state sovereignty, they would be so quick to reject the money coming from Washington? I mean, he who controls the purse strings holds the power. So perhaps federal aid is inhibiting Mississippi’s ability to stand on its own?
Consider that the federal government pumps into Mississippi $2.02 for every $1 it receives from the state in federal tax revenue. Only New Mexico has Mississippi beat, and that only by a penny.
Should we have a commission appointed in Washington to determine which states will get what federal programs or aid, and cut the umbilical cord from states like Mississippi which are apparently so scared that their sovereignty is being undermined?
The money train from Washington to the states aside, if we allow states to pick and choose what federal laws they will enforce, I feel like it begs the question, why even have a union? Why have a United States? Such moves would essentially render the federal government completely powerless and maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here but it just seems like the next step is outright secession and dissolution of the country.
So enough with this nonsensical radicalization of states’ rights.
