Posted on 10/04/2021 4:44:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
You may have seen that map of nearly half the states in the union resisting Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. It almost feels like the GOP realized its true power, but no, their largely symbolic actions should only make all America Firsters demand more.
From the outset, let’s be clear that any and all state and local pushback against the vaccine mandate is welcome. Even symbolic action can grow popular support and morale. The real point, however, is that without the rightful and duty-bound exercise of power on top of what’s already in motion, the traditional American life will die and never come back.
The vaccine mandate is a historic test for our federalist system of government. It’s not a test for the federal courts or a federal midterm election, no. This moment is about answering the question of whether or not the last amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution means anything anymore.
The ink on our country’s founding charter was still drying when Thomas Jefferson said, “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.’”
He was quoting the Tenth Amendment. Then the man who outlined twice the right of rebellion in the Declaration of Independence continued:
“To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.”
So red states are suing or threatening to sue the Biden administration. Does any sensical American doubt that the White House foresaw that happening?
It doesn’t take a black-robed lawyer or even five of them to determine the constitutionality or lawfulness of this mandate. Biden’s circuitous plot to use unelected bureaucrats at OSHA to punish businesses with $14,000 fines for not requiring vaccinations of employees is an affront to the rule of law no matter what a federal court says.
The states themselves can determine the constitutionality of federal edicts. And to protect the rights of their people, they should prepare to interpose against or nullify the federal usurpation of power that properly resides at their level.
So, why aren’t Republican leaders, even local ones, raising this as an option?
Keep in mind there are 16 states with Republican supermajorities in both legislative houses. There are 23 red states with a trifecta, meaning a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both houses.
Well over 137 million Americans (41.8 percent of the population) live in a GOP-trifecta state. This signifies power, and for too long Republicans have been queasy about using it. It’s time to get over that.
Any one of these states could pass a law criminalizing enforcement of these vaccine mandate OSHA fines. Perhaps less confrontational measures would suffice, but even a stronger stance likely wouldn’t amount to any actual standoff with the feds.
The Tenth Amendment Center points out that OSHA has only about 800 officers. As with the war on drugs, gun control, and other out-of-control federal operations, they inevitably depend on local and state law enforcement for support.
There’s no way that on their own OSHA’s goons can touch anywhere close to half the 100,000 private sector companies that fall under Biden’s vaccine mandate. Red states should at the very least be vowing non-compliance, but again, they would also have the prerogative to defend their citizens from federal tyranny in a more active way as well.
As Jefferson wrote in 1798, “where powers are assumed which have not been delegated a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.”
The left knows well the usefulness of states’ rights. Sanctuary states for illegal aliens and marijuana legalization are the best-known use cases, but there are more. The right has been slow to learn, except for the “constitutional carry” movement, which has seen wild success in recent years.
It’s upon the grassroots to convince their respective local and state Republican parties that decentralization and nullification are the best strategies for holding and gaining ground amid a political realignment against the out-of-control left.
Mises Institute president Jeff Deist recently asked, “What if the greatest political trend of the past two hundred years, namely the centralization of state power, reverses in the twenty-first century? What if this century is not about ideology, but about separation and location?”
Too many Republicans fear using state power will escalate the current trend toward statism or that it will incite violence somehow. Quite the contrary. Sending a powerful message of “No!” to an unconstitutional government is what’s needed to realize normalcy and peace in what’s left of our once-free society.
If that “No!” isn’t proclaimed now, it never will be. Australia offers a glimpse of our near future if the Republican Party doesn’t start truly resisting this tyranny in a meaningful way.
Because the majority of these redder than red states that have a Republican governor and legislature are controlled by RINOs.
If we could vote out every RINO who must face a primary in 2022 and replace them with fearless patriots, it wouldn't matter what the Dems did and the Republican party would be unstoppable. It's up to us in 2022.
I just read a Town Hall report about Lt Col Scheller that pretty much threw that in our faces.
... and he's correct !
Lobbying money from Pfizer, end of story. Red states aren’t immune from greedy lawmakers who don’t mind having the palms crossed with silver in return for being silent....
Remember how, when the Republicans you voted for were campaigning and they all said they “WOULD FIGHT FOR YOU” and then you voted for them and they got the job and had a chance to actually FIGHT FOR YOU, but then they didn’t??
Yeah,that was cool.
*exception Ron Desantis
That is precisely why I repeatedly continue to point out how worthless the ballot box has come. I know it pisses people off to hear it but it is reality.
The Republican wing of the Uniparty is expanding into the state houses. 95% of DC republicans are scurrilous, backstabbing hustlers playing us and the swamp to the fullest to cash in on the greatest amount of money and power. I’m in Kentucky and Frankfort republicans are becoming more like DC swampers all the time. The state Republican Party extends its power down to county level to ensure real conservatism doesn’t infect the state power structure. Our last chance went out the window when Trump traded in MAGA for go along, get along, get rich swamp republican subalterns. The joke’s on Trump as the swampers get richer and richer while Trump loses billions. When MAGA died real conservatives were left in a lurch. The Tea Party type organizations pretty much folded when Trump came along. Now the entire movement is lost and suppressed.
Might have something to do with Trump being pro-vax.
The 2022 primaries are our last chance to purge as many RINOs as possible. The future of America depends on it.
Desantis hammers away. Regularly.
There has been no pushback against the Biden COVID mandate in these states because the mandate hasn’t even been formally issued yet.
I’ve seen two Trump endorsements this fall. A supporter of Liz Cheney until she wasn’t, RNC RINO hack to replace Cheney. A sometimes democrat, never Trumper, media talking head, Obama/Kerry girl to replace the RINO governor of Arizona. If Trump’s going to endorse someone, he should at least know who these scum candidates the GOP puts in front of him are.
It's the beginning of the story. It's the story that real journalists and the opponents of compromised officeholders need to pursue until the Pfizer-graft issue is attached to a politician's name wherever he goes and whatever he says.
The power of demonizing someone by repetition is quite effective, and is appropriately exercised when it's about something he's actually done.
That power is not limited by the resistance of those who don't want to hear, or those who refuse to publish or repeat it. If the story is compelling and important, it wells up in random places over time and spreads. Persistence is all.
All.
Yes, let's wait until the horse is out of the barn before we close the door. If you hadn't noticed, a lot of companies have taken advantage of this to create and enforce vaccine mandates. There are a heck of a lot of folks being fired this week because of this. That is something they can pushback against.
“There has been no pushback against the Biden COVID mandate in these states because the mandate hasn’t even been formally issued yet.”
No, he’s getting his way through friendly companies who mandate all he wanted and more, and these so-tough states just smile and nod as this overt fascism (centralized power exercised through enterprise) punishes citizens of their states.
At the least they should be undertaking civil rights cases on behalf of these citizens. The blue AGs love to pursue businesses who undertake freedom; on our side, there’s nothing.
And by that time it's too late. Just sayin.
So, why aren’t Republican leaders, even local ones, raising this as an option?
I have problems with the author’s position. Even if the GOP really existed the way we were conned into believing it would go down fighting for its voters, it cannot effectively do anything until Xiden lays down his OSHA card mandating vax. Author doesn’t show he understands how OSHA rules and emergency rules work, and the administrative process OSHA has to follow in order to come up with a rule. Therefore his proposal that the red states need to pass laws negating an unpublished OSHA rule would most likely not withstand constitutional challenge.
In addition, some states federal OSHA enforces private sector workplace safety (e.g. TX). Other states (e.g. NC) the state enforces private sector workplace safety under an OSHA approved state plan that must be at least as effective to federal OSHA. The federales provide $$$ every year to states like NC who enforce OSHA (so the feds don’t have to do that work). Once OSHA passes its mandate, states like NC would have to implement it in its state plan and be approved by OSHA. States like TX are completely outside of OSHA enforcement. Bottom line - states since 1970 have ceded workplace safety to the federal givernment through OSHA. Courts have affirmed this; 10th Amendment out of the window here. At this point, it would be very difficult for a GOP state legislature to be able to come up with effective law that would displace an OSHA rule-making.
The legal challenge most likely will originate from workers who are denied jobs because they refused the vax. Even companies that do not like the new regulation will not fight it. Compliance is cheaper and besides, they are not the protectors of individual freedom.
This is the evil of Xiden, he is making the weakest members (workers) in this game to bear the brunt of feral givernment power - actually taking away a person’s individual liberty, forcing him to make a medical decision by completely discarding “informed consent”, replacing it with legal decision regarding one’s health choice - basically coercion to avoid financial punishment. In a just country, the givernment would have to show it has no other options here given the extreme danger of the disease to all workers that ssuch a choice is necessary and no accommodations can be made for workers who refuse the vax. After 18 months of data that do not show such devastating danger actually exists in the workplace, an emergency rulemaking seems illegitimate on its face.
Unfortunately, the way I have seen the courts stomped on the constitution and damage individual liberty at the expense of givernment, corporate and political party power - a lot of people will be financially suffering in the future.
There’s a lot to complain about the GOPe and Trump’s unintentional exposure of them as part of the problem in our country. However, the author wasted ink here. There may be other things the GOP can do, but one has to wait for the feds to show their hand. The fact that this did not just roll out of OSHA 3 minutes after Xiden announced the workplace mandate shows that OSHA’s lawyers are trying to craft rules that can pass constitutional muster. As I have said elsewhere, this rule has little to do with worker safety.
We have a choice—we can vote for one party that takes bribes from Big Pharma, or the other party that takes bribes from Big Pharma.
Celebrate our freedom today!
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