Nullification? Sounds like a darn good idea to me

Before you read this post from Adrienne, remember that nullification was a principle that two guys named Jefferson and Madison argued for. I know many today view any talk of nullification as wacky, but I ask you to consider this. If it was good enough for the Father of the Constitution and the author of the Declaration of Independence, shouldn’t it be good enough for us? Idaho thinks so

After leading the nation last year in passing a law to sue the federal government over the health care overhaul, Idaho’s Republican-dominated Legislature now plans to use an obscure 18th century doctrine to declare President Barack Obama’s signature bill null and void. Lawmakers in six other states — Maine, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming — are also mulling “nullification” bills, which contend states, not the U.S. Supreme Court, are the ultimate arbiter of when Congress and the president run amok.

It’s a concept that’s won favor among many tea party adherents who believe Washington, D.C., is out of control.

Again, I can hear those “David Brooks Republicans” heaving and fretting over the extremist nature of such an act. But, again, I suggest we ask ourselves, who is smarter Brooks, or Thomas Jefferson

Back in 1799, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his “Kentucky Resolution,” a response to federal laws passed amid an undeclared naval war against France, that “nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts… is the rightful remedy.“

Still not convinced? OK, let us weigh the wisdom of Madison

That this state having by its Convention, which ratified the federal Constitution, expressly declared, that among other essential rights, “the Liberty of Conscience and of the Press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any authority of the United States,” and from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from every possible attack of sophistry or ambition, having with other states, recommended an amendment for that purpose, which amendment was, in due time, annexed to the Constitution; it would mark a reproachable inconsistency, and criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shewn, to the most palpable violation of one of the Rights, thus declared and secured; and to the establishment of a precedent which may be fatal to the other.

That the good people of this commonwealth, having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other states; the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the union of all; and the most scrupulous fidelity to that constitution, which is the pledge of mutual friendship, and the instrument of mutual happiness; the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions of the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid, are unconstitutional; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each, for co-operating with this state, in maintaining the Authorities, Rights, and Liberties, referred to the States respectively, or to the people.

Now remember, what two of our Founders wrote and thought when you hear some pointed headed pseudo elite bashing the ideal of nullification as extreme or dangerous. And surely Idaho and other states which take up this principle will be castigated and marginalized by those who neither understand or appreciate our founders, their wisdom, our the true meaning of liberty!