States rebel against Washington
28. Mar, 2009 
7 Comments
by Patrik Johnsson, Christian Science Monitor
Atlanta – There’s an old joke in South Carolina: Confederate President Jefferson Davis may have surrendered at the Burt-Stark mansion in Abbeville, S.C., in 1865, but the people of state Rep. Michael Pitts’s district never did.
With revolutionary die-hards behind him, Mr. Pitts has fired a warning shot across the bow of the Washington establishment. As the writer of one of 28 state “sovereignty bills” – one even calls for outright dissolution of the Union if Washington doesn’t rein itself in – Pitts is at the forefront of a states’ rights revival, reasserting their say on everything from stem cell research to the Second Amendment.
“Washington can be a bully, but there’s evidence right now that there are people willing to resist our bully,” said Pitts, by phone from the state capitol of Columbia.
Just as California under President Bush asserted itself on issues ranging from gun control to medical marijuana, a motley cohort of states – from South Carolina to New Hampshire, from Washington State to Oklahoma – are presenting a foil for President Obama’s national ambitions. And they’re laying the groundwork for a political standoff over the 10th Amendment, which cedes all power not granted to Washington to the people.
The movement’s success will largely depend on whether Washington sees these legislative insurgents as serious – or, as Pitts puts it, as just “a bunch of rednecks.”
“There’s a lot of frustration when someone quite distant from you forces you to do something you don’t want to do,” says Steve Smith, director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in D.C. “That’s the root cause, and it ends up being rationalized in constitutional terms.”
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The Tenth Amendment shows the depth of wisdom our Founding Fathers had. The Federal Government was formed by consensus of the States, not the other way around.
Great point, Chuck. And the fact that the federal government was a product of the states makes it even more absurd that the federal government claims to have the final say on what its own power should be.
I have just found out about the movement by states to enforce the 10th amendment and I am thrilled. This is something every American can get behind in their states and actually feel like they are making a difference in reclaiming control of their lives. Better get with the program Ga.
Obviously many states are begining to take this seriously. However my fears of my government continue because only if all 52 states do this and somehow all 52 Governors get together and stand as a United States will it make a difference. I do not see a state pulling support for the current government and making a difference unless they are the sacraficial lamb that starts the revolution to take our country back.
As far as revolutions go, I believe that we’re already in one – as John Adams rightly put it, revolutions aren’t battles, they are a change of minds:
“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
Which were the 51st and 52nd states?
This is true Michael Boldin, let us hope our little revolution here does not burn itself out before it comes to its fullest fruition.