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Marie Lozito	February 12, 2011 Marie Lozito is a Registered Nurse, Licensed Massage Therapist, wife, mother, grandmother and life-long conservative. She wrote a text on medical massage and taught at New York College of Health Professions.  Interested in, and observing politics since 1960, she ran for elected office in 2010.

MISCELANEOUS MUSINGS

An accumulation of thoughts about a few different topics.

“Any man under 30, not a liberal, has not heart; any man over 30, not a conservative, has no brains.” - Benjamin Franklin


A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs... in other words, redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his. One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school. 

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying. 

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?" She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over".

Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA." 
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, said gently, "Welcome to the conservative side of the fence." 

***

Federal politicians, both in the legislative and executive branches, have managed to circumvent the carefully constructed system of checks and balances for decades. 

"What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue this part [the necessary and proper clause] of the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them...the success of the usurpation will depend on the executive and judiciary departments, which are to expound and give effect to the legislative acts; and in a last resort a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers." --James Madison, Federalist No. 44

Indeed, we have started the correction with this last election but it will take many years and many elections to undo the damage already done to the country.

Have you heard of nullification? It is a long established, but seldom discussed (and never taught in the public school system), technique used to invalidate a law. Most often it is Jury Nullification that you might hear about: A legal term referring to a jury's ability to deliver a verdict that is knowingly contradictory to a written law. (Did you even know you could do that as a jurist? That means Ward Bird did not have to be found 'guilty' if the jury had known about nullification and felt the written law was unfair or being applied inappropriately.)

The states have the right to nullification also! Any U.S. State has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law that a state has deemed unconstitutional. Thomas E. Woods Jr., in his book Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tryanny in the 21st Century states that nullification has a long and storied history in the country, and it stems from the idea that “the United States consists not of a single, aggregated people, but of particular people, organized into distinct states.” 

This idea, called the compact theory, is supported by the very fact that the states voted separately to ratify the Constitution, and that the Constitution was not ratified by a single, consolidated vote of all individuals in the original 13 states. The idea that “There’s nothing in the Constitution to suggest that the states are superior to the federal government” completely disregards the 10th Amendment — an amendment as important to those approving the original Constitution as the other nine in the Bill of Rights.

Connecticut Governor Trumbull said in 1809, “Whenever our national legislature is led to overleap the prescribed bounds of their constitutional powers, on the State Legislatures, in great emergencies, devolves the arduous task — it is their right — it becomes their duty, to interpose their protecting shield between the right and liberty of the people, and the assumed power of the General Government.”

Nullification has been used by the various states to oppose things as diverse as exports, tariffs, military conscriptions and the fugitive slave act. It is still used today, e.g., States that exempt firearms and ammunition from Federal oversight as long as it is sold in-state, and, California’s defiance of Federal drug laws. Nullification may just be the protection we, the people and the states, need from the overbearing, over-controlling Federal government that has developed over the last century!