The New Secessionists; or, conservative teabagging gone wild

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It isn't just Texas Gov. Rick Perry hinting at possible secession. No, as the AJC's Jay Bookman reports, it's a far more substantial, and far more nefarious, right-wing movement than most realize:

[O]n April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States.

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[Among other things,] the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.

In other words, if Congress votes to restore the ban on sale of assault rifles, the United States is deemed to no longer exist.

This, your Georgia state Senate voted 43-1 to endorse.

And it's not just Georgia:

The resolution they sponsored is part of a radical right-wing national movement -- a similar resolution was introduced in the Georgia House but not voted on. It has been introduced in legislatures all over the nation, and has passed in both chambers in Oklahoma and one in South Dakota.

And while the Georgia resolution is legally meaningless and was passed without debate or even knowledge of most senators, it has had an impact. It has been hailed by, among others, those fighting the conspiracy to create a single North American country, by the Confederate States Militia, by the John Birch Society, and the League of the South, which still pines for the cause of an "independent South" and believes that "Southern society is radically different from the society impressed upon it by an alien occupier."

That's fine, fine company these secessionist Republicans are keeping. And it doesn't end there. As TPMDC's Brian Beutler notes, the Texas House of Representatives, with Gov. Perry's support, recently passed a "resolution affirming the state's claim of sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. 'I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,' Gov. Perry said." More:

This isn't your garden-variety conservative rhetoric. It's actually considerably more radical than that. The Civil War (and, if that's not enough, a subsequent Supreme Court decision) makes clear that secession is illegal.

Beyond that, the Texas resolution (though silent on secession per se) appears to buy into the similarly discredited theory of 'nullification' -- the idea that states are sovereign and can pick and choose which federal laws apply to them.

More and more, conservatives -- a lot of them, those who adhere to this radical strain -- are proving to be not a loyal opposition with the Republicans out of power in Washington but the proponents of a sort of anti-democratic anti-Americanism. Unhappy with the results of recent elections, unhappy not to be in control, they are pushing for the dismantling of the United States, or at least threatening it.

They may hide behind some warped interpretation of federalism, but their rhetoric smacks of treason.