Wednesday, February 2, 2011

More on Arizona's Unraveling

Five minutes after I finished the previous post on Arizona's rapid descent into insanity, I learned that there is more evidence of this state's unraveling:
Members of the state Legislature, including Arizona's de facto governor, Senate President Russell Pearce, have introduced a bill that essentially would have Arizona secede from the union without having to do so officially. It's called SB1433, (See it here.) It creates a 12-member committee within the legislature that could "vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the people to the federal government…" Committee members themselves would decide this, then pass along their recommendation to the full Legislature. If, in turn, a majority of state lawmakers go along with the committee then, according to the bill, "this state and its citizens shall not recognize or be obligated to live under the statute, mandate or executive order."
Fringe secessionists exist in many states but in Arizona they are powerful enough to have the Senate President on their side. 

On the one hand, in view of recent news coming out of Arizona, I'm sure there will be many people who will not be all that sorry to see this embarrassment of a state go away for good. On the other hand, what about the decent people of Arizona who are obviously a minority but who don't deserve being abandoned to the mercy of the crazed majority?

I was going to read my blogroll some more, but now I'm afraid to get even more sad news out of Arizona tonight. At this stage, there is literally nothing I'd say Arizona is incapable of doing.

4 comments:

Tom Carter said...

In the interest of accuracy, this has nothing to do with secession. It's a misguided effort to force the federal government to observe the Constitution's limits on federal power.

In any case, states don't have the power to do it this way. If a state believes that the federal government has overreached, they take it to court. If the federal government believes that a state is violating the law, as Arizona would be in this case, they take it to court.

There are a whole lot of Americans, and certainly not just those in Arizona, who believe that the federal government long ago slipped its leash. I mostly don't agree with them, but they aren't so easily dismissed.

eric said...

"There are a whole lot of Americans, and certainly not just those in Arizona, who believe that the federal government long ago slipped its leash."

They're the same ones who believe the Confederacy was fighting for "states' rights."

I'm so glad I left AZ when I did. It's so sad to see the state of my birth turn into such a shithole in such a short period of time, and I will probably never return, even if just to visit family.

Canukistani said...

I could have a lot of fun on this thread but I'll make one short comment. The Arizona government has also passed a new law which prohibits "intentionally or knowingly creating a human-animal hybrid." I think that they're closing the barn door after the cows have left on this one!

Clarissa said...

No, Arizona should definitely not secede. They are a gift that just keeps on giving. I just wonder what an unintentional creation of a human-animal hybrid would look like.