Thursday, April 16, 2009

Which End is Up Now?

Yet another among the many reasons for El Jefe's relative silence of late is the rapid and increasingly disorienting change in the political and economic landscape. The ground is shifting in strange, unprecedented ways almost hourly.
Yesterday the Governor of Texas said that Texas could secede if it wanted -- and my sense is that a not insignificant percentage of Texans think they would be happy to see this happen. This came only a day after Governor Perry endorsed a State Sovereignty resolution pending in the Texas House of Representatives that proclaims that the 10th Amendment:
. . .assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp. . .
The draft resolution, (citing the 10th Amendment) goes on to demand that:

. . .the federal government, as our agent. . .cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers. . .

Read the whole thing. The draft resolution appears toothless, but the fact that it is being considered at all tells us that we are now in a different world than only a year ago. How much stranger will things get, as the implications of US national bankruptcy begin to be understood? (I think yesterday's Tea Parties were less about our already high taxes than about the well-founded fear of our spending ourselves and our children into bankruptcy). Will we come together as in the 1930's? Or will the crowd head for any exit it can find, like a theater audience leaving a bad show?
"May you live in interesting times," the Chinese curse goes. Ours would certainly seem to fill that bill. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

1 comment:

The Girl said...

"May you live in interesting times" Hell, It's always interesting never a dull moment that will turn into a migraine headache.