The Wild Boars Gambit
Have you ever been chased by a wild boar? I was, once, as a kid. It was pretty terrifying. And I’m relatively certain that was a domestic hog that had escaped, and in a year or so in the forest had reverted to his natural Lord of the Flies ethos. Kept me up a tree for two hours, at any rate.
Which brings me to my sermon. Man against the State. Man against the State. Man always loses that battle. Even in groups he is impotent against a Leviathan. As much as I admire the Tea Parties, the solution is not to send like minded souls to Washington. It is a corrupting wasteland, and they will either succumb, or be voted out for not bringing that fat, sweet bacon home. Because the same Man who votes for that fiscal hawk also, inexorably, still wants his bacon. He just doesn’t want ne’er-do-wells in blue states to have his bacon. Besides, sending a Tea Partier to Washington is like sending your preacher into a whorehouse to clean it up. He’s going to emerge in drunken stupor, without his pocket watch and Bible, and with a red wax ring around his willie.
No, I think, the solution is not tilting against the windmill that is the DC blob. It is in federalism. Real 10th Amendment federalism. States against the Leviathan. We all know the Constitution strictly enumerated the federal government’s powers, and seeded the enormity of powers to the states. But Leviathan has been gobbling up those rights for 100 years, using a carrot and stick approach of funding bribes and the Commerce Clause. And each state has individually weakened, and capitulated.
But, what ho? The GOP now holds a large majority of governorships and statehouses. That election wasn’t a blowout, and the Republicans control a lot of field level power. One man cannot beat back Leviathan, but 29 governors and statehouses can. If they coordinate, and play by the left’s rules. Select specific areas where the federal government has usurped power, from education to highway construction to Medicaid allocations to, hell, drug laws, and sue the piss out of Leviathan’s minions. Sue, sue, sue. Alinsky them.
Sue the EPA, sue the Interior Department, sue the Department of Health and Human Services. Sue the cabinet members individually. Sue czars. Find sympathetic federal courts and drag those czars’ asses into court. Sue as groups of states, sue as individual states. Just file hundreds, if not thousands, of lawsuits. Most will be swept away by invoking immunity and the supremacy clause, but not all. At some point Leviathan will have to allocate resources. Pick their battles. Toss a few bones. Here’s a thought: if five or six western states sue to allow energy exploration on federal lands some federal judge is eventually going to give them their day in court. The Supreme Court’s mighty firewall could actually be a blessing here. Many appellate court decisions could be upheld.
h/t WRSA
Lawfare doesn’t work for law abiding people. Never has. You’re talking about playing a game where the rules are made up as you go along, but your opponent gets to decide what’s fair. As far as repub governors, ours is already rolling over. The republican party isn’t a real opposition to the left, just a sea anchor. With them, we’re still heading in the same direction, only at a slightly slower pace.
My thinking focus on local gov, city and county level, and build communities that will pressure the state to actually work for the constituents. After a while, we may actually get a real conservative (with an actual spine!) in the governors office.