Joining New Jersey and Oklahoma, Maine To Nullify in 2013

Yesterday afternoon, the Tenth Amendment Center released a news article covering new nullification trends for 2013. Nullification has been a rising trend in America over the last couple decades. The first major modern example is with medical marijuana, which many states have legalized in defiance of federal law that prohibits all use of marijuana, medical or otherwise. Maine, too, allows for the usage of marijuana for medical purposes and has also defied the federal government in refusing to implement the REAL ID Act. It is a bipartisan movement, that has seen Democrats successfully nullify marijuana and national identification card laws, while doing so with strong Republican support.

The trend, which is growing mainstream, will continue onward. A popular topic of discussion in political discourse over the last few years is the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare.” Republicans have correctly observed the damage that the federal mandate will have on the economy. They, however, believe that the correct course of action in response to big government is to expect the same level of government to correct itself. History, which is a friend of liberty, suggests otherwise. Enter nullification.

Understand one thing, and this is a point that everyday Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on, that the power of government should be as reasonably low in government as possible. The higher up something goes, the further away control goes. Perhaps government assistance is required to assist in an industry overrun with problems, but the federal government doesn’t have the best management track record. Our federal government blows up bridges and houses overseas only to subsidize their reconstruction, and they are to be trusted with the management of our health care? Will they let our health go south, only to subsidize the recovery and claim they’ve helped Americans? Welcome to the beauty of inefficient government programs.

Mainers know what Mainers need, and it should be left to Mainers to decide what Mainers do for themselves. Nobody knows better than these independently-minded and well-informed citizens what they need for themselves, certainly not bureaucrats in Washington D.C. Because while everyday people here in this State would prefer to take their child to the doctor to make decisions regarding their health, politicians would prefer that lobbyists make that decision. Luckily, we do have some elected officials who believe bribery on Capitol Hill should not be the way our society is run, and that it most certainly should not have anything to do with our health decisions.

State Representatives Mike Ritze of Oklahoma and Allison Littell McHose of New Jersey, as well as Maine’s own Aaron Libby, understand that we have laws in this country. As much as we may sponsor a particular course of action by a certain level of government, without regard to what the law states, we are a nation of laws. To suggest the Tenth Amendment be ignored because the Constitution is outdated, is to suggest that we eliminate the freedom of the speech because the Constitution is outdated, and even do the same to due process. It’s a slippery slope and a bad precedent to make. Freedom is not obsolete, and everything America stands for is not dead.

Chris Dixon

About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.