It's easy to say that Republicans have no sense of irony. They reveal that practically every time they speak. But, irony is a thing that doesn't mix well with being a politician of any kind. Politicians say the darndest things. They'll say anything. More importantly, they're liable to do anything and do it with no conscience or consciousness of of how it meets up with the persona they've cultivated though their past words, actions, or image mongering. Politicians live in the moment. What they said they stood for means nothing the next day, or even hour. It's all about expediency and agenda.
This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a man who built his persona of Alabama racism and his career on a facade of "States Rights" designed to prevent the feds from interfering with with the Jim Crow lifestyle of the old confederacy, suddenly decided that the concept of "States Rights" was just not applicable if it was going to, this time, get in the way of his lifelong racist attitudes when it comes to certain immigrants.
To "States Rights" advocates, when it comes to governing, the actions of the individual states take precedent over federal law. Living fossils like Jeff Sessions have hidden behind their "States Rights" mantra at least since the pre-Civil War days when the southern states were fighting the inevitable end of slavery. The issue of "States Rights" vs. federal law lies at the core of our history as a country, aka The United States, united, individual, states. "States Rights" is a concept used by individual state legislatures even now. It's used to limit the rights of potential groups of voters, women, marijuana use, the LGBTQ community, and, immigrants. Any time you have heard a conservative politician of any party use the term "States Rights", chances are very good that they were speaking code in the service of limiting some group's rights or exhorting and encouraging the abuse of some target of the day. People like Jeff Sessions built their careers on such aims. They got elected and appointed because of their adherence to "States Rights" as such a code.
So, when Trump's Attorney General suddenly decided this week to sue California (the 6th largest economy in the world) because it chooses, as an individual state, to fight federal immigration laws and policies by devising local and state laws and policies that make the implementation of federal laws more difficult when it comes to deportations... well, let's just look at Jeff Sessions and say, "The irony is strong with this one." Fuck you, Jeff Sessions! States Rights, baby!
The ONLY good thing about Jeff Sessions is that he refuses to quit. The rest of him is abominable.
ReplyDeleteThe "states' rights" meme has always been horse shit.
ReplyDeleteIt's a not-even-coded call to former confederate states and white symps everywhere to exercise their racism.
It is only ever meant to call for government to oppress, suppress and infringe on liberties as it amuses republicans to do so.
It is never meant to allow states to expand rights and privileges or show compassion for brown, poor, young or female people.
There was good reason that li'l jeffy was not considered confirmable to the federal bench not that long ago. He's a boilerplate Alabama racist pos.
"States' Rights" cannot work to maintain a national unity. If all 50 states had such positions, what is left to build a nation from?
ReplyDeleteJust look at this from a commercial standpoint as an illustration. Imagine 50 states with 50 different product standards which were not compatible. What company would want to take up the challenge of supplying their products to such a conglomeration?
States' Rights is a political philosophy out of the Middle Ages when Duchies and Kingdoms were the norm. Anyone who knows the slightest bit about history knows that the vast majority of these "royal" holdings were absorbed or conquered by the rising might of the nation-state. So much for their rights.
It was headed the same way in the US of A until the rise of corporations and their ownership of the government. Corporations are the modern version of the Duchy and the Kingdom, and their corruption of national governance can only lead to contests between these modern-day "royal" holdings using nation-state assets.
The American Dream, oddly enough, is the reason this effort will fail. Most people on Earth desire the kind of society the US of A has thrown away. They are coming to the point where the decay in the American Corporatist Empire matches their growing strengths in certain areas.
There will still be conflict, and death and destruction of unimaginable dimensions. But it isn't clear that the US of A will survive such a conflict, likely becoming instead a Balkanized mockery of its former self and turning its unrequited aggression upon itself.
Assuming, of course, the Mother Nature doesn't end this tragic farce once and for all.
Jeff Sessions essentially wants to re-enact the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. His ICE are basically racist slave catchers and he wants to force California to help them. Back then the Northern states resented that kind of interference and it didn't end well.
ReplyDeleteBut then, it's too much to expect a Trump appointee to learn from history.
Of course, Sessions would probably say that Dreamers count for 3/5 of a citizen...
7:45, enjoyed your comment.
ReplyDelete"Anyone who knows the slightest bit about history..." pretty much leaves 95% of americans out, doesn't it?
Were it not for the commerce clause, perhaps the most intentionally stealthily prescient part of the constitution, we'd still be suffering the limitations of the original articles of confederation. The commerce clause made the usa easy prey for corporations and corporate rule once the supreme court arrogated the privilege of arbiting what is and is not constitutional.
And, yeah, it's a race between American stupidity and earth's planet sciences (exacerbated by American stupidity of course) to see who kills all of us first. Right now I think the smart money might be on American stupidity.