That Tom Emmer, the Republican endorsee for governor, is conservative goes without saying. It is a classic example of understatement, in fact. Based upon the direction the party has taken more and more to the right the past 15 years or so, Emmer never would have received his party’s endorsement in the first place without demonstrating his ultra-conservative bona fides.
But his brand of conservatism goes well beyond the standard fiscal “no new taxes,” cut education and human services conservatism exhibited by the current occupant of the governor’s mansion in St. Paul and the right-wing ideologues who dominate the party.
Emmer’s contention, as put forth recently in a commentary that appeared in the Star Tribune, that states have the right to opt out of federal laws they do not like by exercising their 10th Amendment rights is mind boggling, not to mention downright scary. Giving states veto power over federal law would return this nation to the days of the Articles of Confederation and the unworkable national system of government it created.
Students of American history are well aware that the Articles of Confederation were a dismal failure as the 13 colonies pursued their own agendas in commerce and fiscal policy to the detriment of all. Students of American history also know the Founding Fathers resoundingly repudiated the whole idea of a weak confederation in favor a strong federal system of government when they created the Constitution.
The Founding Fathers were justifiably leery of giving the federal government too much power based upon the colonies’ experience with Great Britain’s monarchical system, and they wisely added limitations to the exercise of that power in the Bill of Rights. It was not an infallible system, however.
The next time a confederate form of government was tried it was by the slaving-holding southern states that believed states’ rights should take precedence over federal laws. It led to the Civil War, and we all know how that turned out even if many still refuse to acknowledge the states’ rights side lost.
It is appalling that a candidate who claims to represent the party of Abraham Lincoln should espouse the same extremist views that resulted in the four-year-long catastrophe that bled this nation white.
Rep. Emmer is an intelligent person, but this radical claptrap he’s spouting makes him sound more like an old-fashioned Southern Dixiecrat than a Lincoln Republican.
We are hopeful the majority of Minnesota voters will reject the radical position presented by Rep. Emmer. Our state needs leaders who are willing to work for moderate, common sense solutions to the problems we face.
Divisive, extremist politics have not served our state in the past and will not work in the future.
