Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Tea Party Tips Their Hand

At the Virginia Tea Party Patriots convention this weekend, the state's Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell, has just unveiled the newest weapon on the "tyranny of the majority" front.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said this afternoon that he would support a federal constitutional amendment that would allow two-thirds of the states to collectively repeal a federal enactment.

He committed to the action during a panel discussion on government reform at the Virginia Tea Party Patriots convention. The amendment is being promoted by the tea party and, in Virginia, Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford.

Panel moderator Robert D. Holsworth asked McDonnell if he would support the amendment, and if he would commit to help getting it through the next legislative session.

"Yes, I support it," McDonnell said. "A supermajority like that helps to strike that balance between state and federal authority and I think would help to breathe new life into the system of federalism that our Virginia forefathers fought so valiantly for 200 years ago." 

Right, and our forefathers were smart enough to know the difference between a representative republic and a populist mob calling itself democracy, too.

Guess what's the first thing on the list to be repealed?  Sure, these guys could use it to take out health care reform, but that's thinking too small.  If you're going to give the American people the power to dismantle decades of federal improvements by whipping up a mob with the power to decimate its own self-interests, why stop at health care?

Why not roll back civil rights, eliminate Social Security and Medicare, take out all the executive agencies that you don't like, like the Department of Education or the EPA?  The Teabaggers are shooting for the whole wad here because they know repealing all the different Amendments they want to get rid of is going to be time-consuming and may fail.  Put everything into one big huge superveto amendment and use it to rip up the federal government via a mob powered by unlimited campaign donations!

Absolutely count on hearing about this amendment proposal going forward, folks.  It's the ultimate in tyranny of the majority.

1 comment:

  1. I hate to break it to the teabaggers but its thing call the supramcy clause
    Article VI, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land." It means that the federal government, in exercising any of the powers enumerated in the Constitution, must prevail over any conflicting or inconsistent state exercise of power.

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