Nullification And Void, Part 2

TPM's Jillian Rayfield has an excellent article on the nullification movement -- the notion that individual states can simply ignore federal laws they don't agree with -- considered clearly unconstitutional, silly, and pigheadedly fringe.

Until we got a black President, that is.

For most of the last century, talk of secession, nullification and the rest of the extreme states-rights lexicon were relegated to the fringiest parts of the political fringe. But since Barack Obama entered the White House in January 2009, mainstream Republican rhetoric and proposed legislation at the state level have both warmed to the hoary idea that state governments can take their relationship with the federal government on what amounts to an a la carte basis or perhaps abandon it altogether.

Take the concept of Nullification -- the notion that individual states can unilaterally refuse to follow or enforce federal law they don't agree with. For the most part, it's been laughed off since the Civil War. It was brought up again by segregationists during the Civil Rights Era but more out of desperation and political theater than as a serious approach to the constitution.

But the rise of the Tea Party and its amorphous anti-federal government platform has brought these ideas closer to the mainstream than they've been in decades. So, while nullification advocates, Tenthers, secessionists, "constitutional tender" proponents, and the rest don't necessarily share the same theoretical rationales, together they've brought hostility to the federal government back into the realm of respectable political discourse.

And it's that last sentence that is the key.  There's a definite move by the Republican party in this country to consider anything the federal government does, particularly anything the federal government does proposed by Barack Obama, as inherently evil and un-American.  Anyone who is a government employee serves this evil overlord (except for brave elected Republicans, natch).

But what makes this different is the size and the scope of this hatred of government.  It's feeding into distrust and rancor towards government institutions as well.  Public education of any kind is increasingly seen as "indoctrination" and teachers, professors and educators are not respected by Republicans, but hated as government apparatchiks.  Police, firefighters and other safety officials are seen as thugs and jackbooted enforcers.  Local and state government employees are seen as leeches and moochers who should all be put out on the street.

The core of this nonsense is the increasing view from Republicans that America needs as little government as possible, and as such as few government employees as possible.  As much infrastructure, public safety, education and governance itself should be turned over to private industry, with the goal of running these services in a manner to make a profit, not to provide them to those who need them.

The most basic services, in other words, should be privatized so that the businesses who operate them can use them to make money...and if that means those who need services aren't getting them, well, you're on your own.

Increasingly, the Republicans are playing to this fringe notion that government itself is illegitimate (but only if run by Democrats.)  Taxes are illegitimate if you don't 100% agree with what they are being used for, as are laws, regulations, and codes.  It's a dangerous notion that if the minority doesn't agree with the majority, they aren't subject to the majority rule.  There are times when that should be true...but not as a result of the lawful, constitutional process of representative democracy.

These folks simply say it's not lawful or constitutional in their view.  And the fact that this view is freely being adopted by people who would be President of the United States, and in fact by a number of local, state, and national Republican candidates for office, should be extraordinarily troubling to all Americans.

Even worse, when the basic response from these Republicans is the unlawful nullification of accepted law, the solutions presented by some are quite violent as a result.  It is to these extremes that the Republican party is willing to go to in order to maintain political power, the demonize any government that isn't wholly controlled by them as illegitimate.