We Are Screwing Up By Operating Just On The National Level,

[Parisle]

---- The individual states are still the basic repository of all Constitutional legitimacy. The respective states drafted the Constitution,... they ratified it,.. and they hold the only key to its amendment. The states are, in a sense, all-powerful when it comes to matters of constitutionality of various "Bush presidential decrees," and the states have to assert this preeminent jurisdiction.

---- True, patriotic, back-at-home democrats would do well to support their national candidates, while at the same time devoting the bulk of their political energies to their state governments. That is the only way that we will defeat not only the neocons, but their corporate financiers, as well. Consider the following:

---- A state government could pass a "nullification resolution," stating that its own state legislators will be the final judge of whether or not an ontoward presidential decree will be recognized and obeyed within the geographical boundaries of that state. Let Bush say what he will. Let the "stacked" Supreme Court say what they will. Their words will mean nothing compared to the effect on mainstream America of seeing US Army tanks attacking one of our own states. And if as many as three states pass such nullification resolutions, then the neocon movement would be stymied. They can't invade Washington, West Virginia and Vermont,... it just wouldn't look very good, eh? Besides,... they don't have the troops.

---- Once a given state has asserted itself, it can do a lot of things. It can declare the members of the now-dismantled PNAC to be anti-constitutional subversives,... and arrest them if they venture across that state's boundary line. They could put bounty-hunters on their nazi asses. They can issue warrents for the arrest of serious corporate offenders,... Lesar at Halliburton, William Utt at KBR, Riley Bechtel at Bechtel,..... even Richard Mellon-Scaife, the underwriter of the PNAC. They can balk at federal directives, refuse to hand over tax and social security revenues,... they could even declare the republican party to be a criminal accomplice to the criminal Bush administration, and require all republican officers in that state to renounce and discontinue their association with the GOP or go to jail. What's that? Supreme Court review? Aw, dang,.... we already shot the SOB's. Too late.

---- America has been poisoned by national-politics-as-entertainment. There would be a lot to be said for a state population that operated completely independently of any national debate or exposure. I happen to love West Virginia, and WVA is the "purest" democratic state,... democratic governor,.. 2 democratic senators,..2 out of 3 democratic congressmen,.. and a state legislature with 2-1 democratic advantages in both houses. Plus West Virginia produces 2.5 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cu ft of natural gas annually,... they have significant hydroelectic facilites,... and all the goddamned coal in the world. Democrats should SERIOUSLY concentrate on making WVA a state where republicans may be arrested just for being alive. It follows perfectly. The Bush administration is criminal,...... support them, or have anything to do with them, and you are a criminal, too. Let's see just one state totally wipe out the republican party,... jail, property confiscation, the works. Let's do this the way the colonial revolutionaries went about it.

---- One state would be a "laboratory" for opposition to the PNAC junta,....... two states would have the nazi sons of bitches shitting wolverines,.... and three states is their funeral.

[MissMarple]

1. That didn't work out so well last time.

:shrug:

[Parisle]

2. MissMarple Is A Good Name For You,.....

---- If you've got something to say, then say it. These little snide, drive-by one-liners are the reason that the DU seldom amounts to more than the clique-ish, self-absorbed gossip which could be heard in the girl's restrooms of a thousand 7th-grade classes across the country. I'm trying to determine what may be done about the seriously bad circumstances that we now confront. If you didn't like what I said, then go me one better. Make an actual statement. Write an entire goddamned paragraph, if you have it in you. Produce an idea or an original observation. We need actionable strategy,.... not a lot of "he said - she said" conspiratorial and sanctimonious buzzing. I thought this was supposed to be a forum for ideas,..... not gossip and sanctimonious sophistry. You can be right all the way to the "detention centers."

[blondeatlast]

3. "National politics as entertainment." Nailed it!

Excellent point.

Just look at what the Religious Right have done to school boards and state legislatures as proof of your arguments.

I'm not a big states' rights fan, but I can see where you are going with this.

We forget that state legislatures and city councils hold some tremendous power. It may not be as glamorous or as fun, but their legislation tends to affect us much closer to home; precisely why we have a federated system.

You perhaps missed one point--our stae and city legislative bodies are the nurseries for our future national leaders.

[Parisle]

4. Thank You, Blonde

---- And yes, local political bodies ARE the nurseries for future leaders,... and it is too bad that the states' rights concept got a bad name during the civil rights movement of the 60's. The Constitution leaves little doubt about the legitimacy of that concept, though. In fact, I believe that "states' rights" may be viewed as another of the checks and balances built into the government.

---- National politics has become such an abstraction,.. its national figures seen as rock stars or something like that,.. and the grassroots flow of political will and preference from the local to the national level becomes, at times, suspect, or just pushed aside. I'm suggesting that we get it right in a few states first,... Heck, I'd even like to see some form of "linkage" of national legislators to their respective state governments. And I'd sure like to see the "recall mechanism" dusted off and oiled up for appropriate future applications. And I'm sticking by my earlier rough calculation that if just three states forcefully oppose the current Bush White House strategy and objective of further usurpation of power for the executive branch,.... just three states,... then the whole deal falls apart. The wake-up call that Bush cannot afford to have the American people receive is the image of a president making war on his own countrymen.