Wednesday, November 03, 2010

The state of the states

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Andrew Jackson's return?

I'm glad to leave detailed analysis of the election results to others who are more hip to the specifics than I am. But what strikes me as especially significant is that, as Rosslyn Smith writes at American Thinker:
The GOP had enormous success is taking control of state legislatures last night. This new power will have an impact in redistricting efforts for U.S House seats, and  for state legislative districts. It also gives Republicans a bigger role in state fiscal issues- budgets, taxes, spending.  It appears that at least 15 State House or Senate chambers had a change in control to the GOP last night, giving the Party control of more chambers than the Democrats now hold. 
Regardless of who controls Congress -- and it looks like, for two years, the answer will be "nobody" -- two immensely powerful governments-within-the-government, to wit, the federal bureaucracy and the federal courts, will carry on heedless. Those institutions, more than the presidency or Congress, increasingly set policy with no outside checks or balances.

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State governments, however, emboldened by the example of Arizona and their new (R)-heavy composition, will be in a stronger position to act as a counterweight to Washington. The most red-blooded states may well feel up to telling the federales, especially the agency mobs, to stick their regulations where other waste products go. As to the Supremes, history has never forgotten that Andrew Jackson said of the Chief Justice, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."

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Did you notice that Oklahoma overwhelmingly passed the proposition banning its judges from using Muslim sharia law as precedents? "The law also banned judges referring to international law, as well as requiring all state business to be conducted in English," a news report says. Good on you, Sooners. Better Sooner than later. 

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Darby,

I am in OK and just go and look at all of the state questions we passed yesterday. Very conservative and very overwhelmingly passed. The only thing we did not do yesterday was kick out that a--hat Boren from the US House.

On another note, some HBDers need to log onto the Denninger site (market-ticker) and start trying to get him to see HBD realities. It is a real blind spot for him (to borrow from Auster, all folks are liberals by default anymore unless they are not by choice). He keeps ranting and raving about "honesty"; like 3rd world countries are known for that.

Of course, the atheism in much of the HBD world is another blind spot...

MDR

Rick Darby said...

MDR,

I look in at Karl Denninger's site now and then, and have even quoted him on this blog. He operates in a well-worn groove writing about financial corruption. His diatribes may be valuable, although a lot of them are so esoteric that I can't follow them very well.

It's hard to imagine him taking HBD on board. He is of the Homo economicus species. So, I am afraid, are most of the Tea Partyers, unable to see beyond taxes and business.

Sheila said...

Those Oklahoma ballot initiatives were one of the few things I found to celebrate about yesterday (otherwise I was rooting for specific defeats, not victories). I was especially pleased they passed initiatives requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote (that's where all the fraud begins) and a photo ID to vote (only useful if step #1 has been followed). Would that we could pass similar things in Texas, but we are too infested with Mexicans, Blacks, and former Californians and New Yorkers. Too bad Oklahoma is land-locked - otherwise it sounds increasingly inviting.

Rick Darby said...

Sheila,

When I voted Tuesday, I handed the official my voter registration card, the same one I've had for eight years. She looked it over carefully, asked my address, checked it against the computerized record, and was satisfied.

She didn't ask to see any form of ID. I could have found the registration card in the street for all she knew.

Maria said...

They don't even check your registration cards in California. My voting official offered to throw mine away for me, though.