Jackson Jambalaya

Mr. Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion-Ledger, the conscience of Mississippi only after William Winter, did a little reporting on the Mississippi Tea Party yesterday. In case you didn't read it, here it is with editorial comments from yours truly:

A half century ago, Mississippi received worldwide attention for fighting to preserve racial discrimination and segregation on the grounds of state sovereignty.

Now the Mississippi Tea Party, which enthusiastically backed Phil Bryant for governor, wants the Magnolia State to reassert state sovereignty to stamp out "unconstitutional" and "un-American" federal laws.

Unlike most reporters who waste half a story before getting around to what they have to say, Mr. Mitchell shows why he wins awards in getting right to it in the first paragraph: Lets bring up segregation. We all know segregation is a bad thing. Mr. Mitchell naturally drags the Tea Party into the next sentence. He doesn't write the Tea Party wants to bring back segregation mind you, nothing so crass as that, he just brings up the sovereignty code words in the same sentence so you will think segregation, tea party, and sovereignty as in sovereignty commission.

Once regarded as a fringe group, the tea party now wields significant political power, seeing half of its 10 endorsed candidates help tilt the House to the Republicans.

"We do not want lawsuits challenging these laws - but nullification and/or interposition," the Tea Party wrote in its 2012 Legislative Agenda. "These concepts are well founded in our history, and must be used now."

"Interposition" involves a state placing its sovereignty between its citizens and the federal government.

Fringe group? Ahhh.... the old fringe as in extremist tag line. One can just see Mr. Mitchell's wheels furiously turning in his head: How could anyone associate with a "fringe" group. Keep in mind fringe is what journalists use to describe Neo-Nazis, Black Panthers, and the like. However, these sentences were just the opening volley. After using a few code words for the Tea Party, Mr. Mitchell has the natural urge to go run down a civil rights "pioneer" and scare the hell out of her:

Talk of state sovereignty, nullification and interposition brings back bad memories of when Mississippi mistreated African Americans, said Hattiesburg native and civil rights pioneer Dorie Ladner. "We've made too much progress in this state to go back."

Ms. Ladner, no one wants to go back. Yes, there are nuts in every group. there are still unreconstructed Bilboists who have rather unpleasant attitudes just as there are bomb-throwers and anarchists in the Occupy crowd. No serious person in Mississippi (don't say it) even thinks of going back to the way things were before 1970. But an insecure Mr. Mitchell apparently needs more civil rights firepower so he brings in our other conscience: Hodding Carter, III:

Hodding Carter III, whose family ran the Pulitzer Prize winning Delta Democrat-Times in Greenville, never thought he would ever hear the words "state sovereignty" and "interposition" again.

"It's now been long enough - two generations - for people to completely forget how those phrases were used," he said. "They've been in the grave a long time, and they definitely stink."

Ah yes, our long-lost conscience who left us a long time ago only to write critical epistles about racist Mississippi from Mount Olympus. At least Donna Ladd came back to try and straighten us out but obviously she avoided the real fight against racism as it raged in cocktail parties in Georgetown where Mr. Carter was. Now that Mr. Mitchell has used a few civil rights heroes, a few code words, and brought back the specter (Not to be confused with S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), he finally allows Mr. Roy Nicholson of the Mississippi Tea Party a few words. The only problem is, Mr. Nicholson is not exactly what you would call a communications director:

Roy Nicholson, chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, acknowledged state sovereignty has a long - and sometimes negative - history, but it's going to be revisited, he said.

"The federal government is so far out of control. It has no desire to bring itself back under constitutional limitations," he said.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It was all taken out of context. I didn't mean what he wrote. Its the liberal media's fault. Well, here's a few clues for Mr. Nicholson and others: if you know the article is going to be a hit piece, run. Just run. Don't give him an interview as you can count on at most three of your statements being used and he is the one doing the picking (Sorry Jerry and Cottonmouth, my use of the word "picking" was not a reference to "cotton" or "slavery".). If you do give him an interview, videotape the entire interview and put it on your website or similar media so everyone can see what you meant. Of course, that requires effort, blaming the media does not.

By the way, sovereignty is not a dead concept. Federalism is battered but very much alive. The federal government can not expressly tell states what do do. It can place conditions on federal money all day long and does so. That is how most expansions of the federal government take place. All a state has to do is...... not take the money. The reason why the federal government is not ordering states to set up health care exchanges without providing the funding is because there is a little 1992 case called New York v. U.S. where the federal government would have to assume the duty itself or provide the money to the states to perform the so-called mandate. Yes, federalism and state sovereignty was used for those little limitations on the federal government's power. However, Mr. Nicholson walked right into the sovereignty trap and Mr. Mitchell slammed it shut. Before you knew it, Mr. Nicholson was in a brer patch of segregation, Hodding Carters, and secession. Then Mr. Mitchell uses the dreaded "N" word:

After the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Mississippi's top leaders fought the decision, and some argued in favor of nullification and interposition.

OK, lets get something straight Tea Party members: Nullification is a dead, dead, dead concept. It sounds great on paper. Try it in court and you will be laughed out of the courtroom. It didn't work for John C. Calhoun. It didn't work in the 1960's when the states tried to protect segregation, and it won't work now. You simply can not have 50 states picking and choosing which laws do and do not apply in their states. We tried that once and it was called the Articles of Confederation.

If a state does not like a law, there are three remedies: get Congress to change the law, go to court, get three-fourths of the states together and change a few things. This nation could not function if fifty states all wielded separate veto power over every law passed by congress. It has never been legally upheld. Never.

Sure enough, Mr. Mitchell brings back John C. Calhoun and then the other dreaded word: the "S" word:

Civil rights pioneer Joyce Ladner said talk of reasserting state sovereignty "is crazy. It sounds like they want to secede from the Union."

The trap just slammed shut on you, Roy. We've gone from segregation to John C. Calhoun and the Old South to secession. Nice of you to say you are against secession:

Nicholson responded that the Tea Party isn't secessionists. "We're not trying to return to the invalid claims in the War Between the States regarding the rights of individuals," he said.

STOP THE FIGHT!!! PLEASE, STOP THE FIGHT. This is child abuse. Clay dancing around Liston. Nicholson playing Randall Tex Cobb to Mitchell's Larry Holmes. Foreman unable to raise his hands to protect himself. You get the idea as its now too late. The reader is now thinking about secession and the fact you are denying, well, of course you are going to deny it. No one wants to be called a traitor, after all, but that is where Mr. Mitchell is going. They then spar about the states challenging Obamacare in court as Mr. Mitchell tosses the Tea Party a bone:

For instance, the state of Mississippi should be able to stand up and nullify federal health care reform, refusing to implement it, he said. "We would say we do not recognize this as a federal law and therefore it is null and void. That would set up court appeals and battles."

So tell me Roy, if the state considers it as null and void,how is it going to block that or any other law? Call out the militia? Ignore federal judges? What do you recommend the state do when a Judge orders the marshals to start arresting those found in contempt? You might want to think about those things because you obviously didn't think when Mr. Mitchell led you into the next minefield. I can not make this up:

The Tea Party also wants state lawmakers to resurrect the General Legislative Investigating Committee "to make a study of un-American activities in this state and to report its findings."

The Legislature established the committee in 1950 - at the height of the Red Scare, less than a year after the Soviet Union exploded its own atom bomb.

Under the law, un-American activities include those "intended to overthrow, destroy, alter, or to assist in the overthrow, destruction or alteration of the constitutional form of government" in the U.S. or Mississippi by "revolution, force, violence or other means" not authorized by the state or U.S. Constitution.

After the 1962 riot at the University of Mississippi that killed two, the committee blamed not the rioters, but the federal marshals for the deaths.

"We would like to see the committee re-instituted because a lot from Washington has strayed so far," Nicholson said. "A lot of their activities are un-American."

So first you are creating the Tea Party to limit the size and power of government then turn around and want to use the government to prosecute "un-American" activities. I have a question: Are you that stupid? What are you going to do if the Democrats ever gain power and start to do their own investigatin' of "un-American activities"? Ready for that one? Or did you not think that through? There is no way a conservative or libertarian can support the idea of such a committee. Who or what exactly do you consider un-American? The federal government? The Democrats in Mississippi? Who? Is there some wave of revolution or anarchy in Mississippi I missed?

However, Clay dances away after the flurry and the comes back again as he closes with that good ole reliable boogieman and killer of all things Haley: The (don't let your children see this) Citizen's Council:

Neil McMillen, author of The Citizens' Council, said talk of state sovereignty brings to mind the Council or the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a now defunct state segregationist spy agency created in 1956 to fight court-ordered desegregation.

"We've been down this road several times before in the Civil War era and the civil rights era, and we found ourself isolated and on the wrong side of history both times," he said. "Anyone vaguely conversant with the era of massive resistance in which Mississippi set itself against human rights will be familiar with this language. Surely these self-destructive chapters in our history are behind us."

So, Roy. You got mixed up with secession, segregation, the Citizen's Council, the Sovereignty Commission, and slavery on the pages of the largest newspaper in the state. Instead of using phrases such as federalism and the founding fathers intended to divide power between different levels of government, you instead just played right along like a boob. Made me wonder if that is what you really meant. I mean, you are against these things, aren't you? Then there is that matter of the Investigating Committee for all things "Un-American". That has no place in Mississippi politics- period.

Its obvious Mitchell did a hatchet job but Mr. Nicholson didn't exactly help his cause. Um, what exactly is that cause? Is it limiting the size of government, lifting the burden of taxes and regulations on Americans, or opposing crony capitalism? Or is the Tea Party going to waste its time on Investigating Committees, nullification, and other discredited ideas? Regardless of what the Tea Party does in Mississippi, one thing is clear: Mr. Nicholson should not be allowed anywhere near a reporter. That was painful to read.