Oh Now Everyone Is Revolting, Sir!

Over at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jay Bookman details a lovely little Georgia Senate resolution that basically calls for the nullification of the United States of America.

It wasn’t quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States.

It was not an April Fool’s joke.

In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

“Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force,” the Georgia Senate declared.

In other words, in the infinite, almost unanimous wisdom of the Georgia Senate, Michael Vick is being imprisoned illegally, Bernie Madoff should serve no time for stealing $60 billion and the Unabomber must go free. In fact, the federal penitentiary in Atlanta should be emptied of its inmates.

But wait, there’s more.

The resolution goes on to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge constitutional freedoms of religion, press and speech. According to the resolution, it is up to the states to decide “how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged.”

The resolution even endorses “nullification,” the legal concept that states have the power to “nullify” or ignore federal laws that they believe exceed the powers granted under the Constitution. That concept has a particularly nasty legacy. It helped precipitate the Civil War, and in the 1950s and early ’60s it was cited by Southern states claiming the right to ignore Supreme Court rulings ordering the end of segregation.

Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.

In other words, if Congress votes to restore the ban on sale of assault rifles, the United States is deemed to no longer exist.

This, your Georgia state Senate voted 43-1 to endorse.

There really is no excuse for this kind of thing. None. Zero. Zilch. But there are obnoxious resolutions like this in a number of states (like Texas for example) that not only are passing, but are getting big local publicity. State Republican lawmakers in the South are so fundamentally frightened by Barack Obama, so utterly delusional, that they are actually writing resolutions that state they no longer recognize the legal authority of the United States of America.

I don't see this as harmless posturing. I see this as explicitly feeding the last people left to believe in the supremacy of the Republican Party: the cranks, the crackpots, and the psychos. They so fundamentally, irrationally, delusionally despise Barack Obama so much that they think secession is a good idea. I've been saying this for months now. We're only beginning to see the true depths of the abyss here.

I may have my problems with Obama, but they are based on, you know, reality. Policy issues. Legal opinions. Not crazy fringe conspiracy crap. But that's not stopping these folks. The fire they are playing with is getting out of control, and when America gets burned by these nutbars, remember who gave them the matches and the gasoline.