American history is filled with slogans. Our independence was forged, you might say, because of a powerful mantra that rang out across the colonies: “No taxation without representation!” It was on the lips of nearly every American who believed in liberty. In light of our betrayal by the Supreme Court on the Obamacare bill, I want to propose a new one.
Recently I gave a speech to the Jones County Tea Party group on the subject of the Mississippi lawsuit against Obamacare. Since I am an original plaintiff, they sought my views on the chances that our suit might have for success. For the record, I think we have a great case and a shot at having the Court overturn it, yet in light of the curveball the Chief Justice recently threw us, your guess is as good as mine.
So what if we do lose the case and Obamacare remains law? What if President Obama is re-elected or a President Romney fails to live up to his promises of repeal? We must not lose heart. We must resist.
In the film Michael Collins, an excellent movie about the Irish uprisings after World War I that culminated in the Irish Free State, the film’s star, played by Liam Neeson, laid out a strategy to defeat the British Empire, which Ireland had fought for hundreds of years. “We have a weapon more powerful than any in the whole arsenal of the British Empire, and that weapon is our refusal,” he said. “Our refusal to bow to any order but our own, any institution but our own!”
We, the people of the states, should do likewise. We should refuse to submit to any order or institution but our own. We should refuse to obey any dictate from Washington that we believe is unconstitutional.
Our cry should be “We refuse!”
We refuse to be herded into a national healthcare system that robs us of our freedom to make our own health decisions.
We refuse to continue to submit to an outrageous tax code that steals up to a third of our wealth.
We refuse to comply with outrageous regulations that choke business and stifle economic growth, crushing the American Dream.
We refuse to send our young men and women to die in wars nobody seems willing to win anymore.
We refuse to comply with gun control laws that restrict the God-given rights of the people and place them at the mercy of criminal thugs.
We refuse to bow to a Justice Department that has no regard for true justice but that of social justice.
We refuse to be subjected to degrading strip-searches and groping by the TSA in the name of security, while our borders remain wide-open and illegal aliens commit crimes across the nation.
But it will take more than just the citizenry to accomplish this goal. It will take leadership from our governors and local officials. I am waiting patiently for a governor, somewhere in our Union, to finally stand up and say to the Feds, “You have gone as far as you are going to go! We refuse!”
It is the right and the duty of state governors and local officials to interpose their authority between their people and the federal government. The principle of interposition has been a cardinal principle of government for centuries, long before the creation of the American republic.
The problem is that governors file lawsuits against Washington, rather than resist with other means. I want a governor to announce that rather than file a lawsuit in the federal government’s own courts, the state will nullify the federal laws and regulations that have been passed against the liberties of the people, making those laws of no effect in that particular state.
What can Washington do? Invade us? Jail us all? They have no moral authority to act against a state and its people, and if they do the entire corrupt system will collapse. Someone is going to have to act soon.
Some months ago, the Feds actually threatened to impose an air blockade, with F-16s, against every airport in Texas and, according to some sources, began preparing army tank units to send to the state, and all of this potential violence because Texas dared to enact a law placing criminal charges on TSA agents who touch the genitals of passengers at any of the state’s airports.
One Texas county administrator, Judge Tom Head of Lubbock, is already vowing resistance if Obama is re-elected, which he believes will result in “civil war.” The judge is pledging to oppose any use of foreign troops against the people of his county should the economy collapse as a result of Obama’s second term. Some say he’s crazy; I think he’s a top-notch public servant using interposition to safeguard his people.
So let us stand up for our God-given rights and adopt this slogan for ourselves and for our movement: We Refuse!
This column was published in the Laurel Leader Call (Laurel, MS) on September 5, 2012.
Ryan S. Walters 
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