Writing about the newspaper niche industry that is Mazeppa's Representative Steve Drazkowski, Winona Daily News editor Darrell Ehrlick believes Drazkowski misses the mark about "Tenthism." Bluestem believes that Ehrlick in his turn misses the mark about how the Draz's ideas are central to the contemporary iteration of the GOP.
Amazingly for all the backward ideas floating around in St. Paul during Round One of the legislative session, even some ideas appeared too goofy for the GOP.
Did I say “amazingly?”
Minnesota newspapers’ niche industry, state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, who represents a wide swath of the Winona area, had enough time on his hands to contemplate the limits of federalism.
Apparently Team Draz wants Minnesota to become a tenther state.
For those unfamiliar, this is a movement of conservatives, tea partiers and other assorted conspiracy theorists who believe the not often used Tenth Amendment holds the key to breaking free from the tyranny of the federal government.
The Tenth Amendment for those of you who may not remember (it’s only been invoked directly twice in Supreme Court cases in the last 60 years), says that powers not given to the federal government remain the province of the individual states or individuals.
Borrowing from the playbook of doomsday prophets and movies like the “Da Vinci Code,” tenthers, as they’ve been called, believe the amendment’s spartan language and straightforward approach is really a secret code for states to nullify any federal legislation they don’t like.
Walk It Back
Let's walk back the cat on Drazkowski's idea and see what else and who else is lurking there among those Ehrlick implies are extremists. When one does so, it doesn't really seem that Drazkowski's ideas are too goofy for the GOP; in fact, last year's party standard bearer, gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, co-sponsored a 2010 Tenth amendment bill.
In April 2010, the Minnesota Independent's Andy Birkey reported in Republicans push for Minnesota sovereignty:
Senate Republicans introduced a constitutional amendment Wednesday that would make Minnesota the first state to require a two-thirds majority vote in the legislature to approve federal laws affecting the state. “Minnesotans enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights,” the bill states, and “Citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government’s enumerated constitutional powers.”
The bill was introduced by state Sens. Mike Parry of Waseca, Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria, and David Hann of Eden Prairie, and is a companion to a House bill introduced by Reps. Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa, Bruce Anderson of Buffalo, and Tom Emmer of Delano last month.
Emmer has also authored a resolution that would lay claim to Minnesota’s sovereignty: “[T]he State of Minnesota hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.”
The bills are part of a larger conservative push, following the election of President Barack Obama, to give states power to reject federal policies. Seven red states passed Tenth Amendment resolutions following Obama’s inauguration: Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Tennessee. Five others have passed a resolution since health care reform passed: Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.
And Emmer isn't the only GOP leader in the list above. Mike Parry, for instance, is a communications point man for deputy MNGOP party chair and Senate Majority caucus leader Michael Brodkorb. Brodkorb has put Parry on the radio as host of "Inside the Senate."
ALEC's support
The "larger conservative push" Birkey mentions later drew support from two of the more powerful policy groups in Republicanland: the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Drazkowski didn't drop his fancy toward Tentherism a year ago, but rather, he went national with other like-minded Republicans, lending his words to a media advisory issued by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on November 24, 2010:for the related federal "Repeal Amendment":
“The federal government continues to squash the sovereignty rights of the states as guaranteed by the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution unrelentingly and at an accelerating pace. From countless unaffordable federal mandates imposed upon Minnesota's healthcare system, education programs, and even families, the overreach of Congress has gone unchecked. It's time for the states to restore their Constitutionally-protected autonomy, and that's why I am going to sponsor the Article V application for the Repeal Amendment.”
Steve Drazkowski, member, Minnesota House of Representatives
Draz wasn't able to make the press conference ALEC staged for the announcement of the legislation, but plenty of Republicans were there, including Congressman and 10th Amendment Task Force Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), Bill Howell, Speaker of the House of Delegates in Virginia, David Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Utah, and Mike Haridopolos, President of the Florida Senate.
It would be goofy not to see those folks as part of the GOP--and somewhat irresponsible of Ehrlick and others to continue to frame the Tenthers as simply a fringe. While the idea itself might indeed be goofy, it's not so goofy that Congressman and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor refused to put his name on the media advisory along with that of the Draz. Indeed, Cantor's name heads the list of sponsors on ALEC's November 2010 media advisory. So far as I can tell, no Democrats there. And while ALEC claims a few Democratic members, it's by far a Republican dominated group.
And while ALEC is one of the great conservative satans for the left, Minnesota conservatives typically say that the group is no different than another membership group (though the legislative membership of ALEC is never disclosed to the public; a transparency law like that in Florida might change that).
If we take Republicans at their word about ALEC being just another group, then Tentherism is just another idea that's not too goofy for Minnesota Republicans.As we should see, it's not too goofy for Republicans in Congress to consider.
Tentherism goes to Congress: the role of the RSC
ALEC--composed of public elected officials and the private sector members drawn from industry lobbyists and corporations that provide most of the funding for the group-- isn't the only high profile member of the club of what Ehrlick calls "conservatives, tea partiers and other assorted conspiracy theorists" supporting Tentherism.
Bishop's "10th Amendment Task Force" is a project of the conservative Republican Study Committee, the U.S. House's conservative caucus. In Minnesota, Congressman John Kline and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann are members.
Wikipedia notes that there are over 170 current members of the RSC--a majority of the caucus. Moreover, like ALEC, it was founded by the profilic foundational conservative godfather, Paul Weyrich.
Is the GOP "too goofy"
As much fun as it is to laugh at ALEC member Steve Drazkowski--and Bluestem often delights in our own share of belly laughs at his expense--neither Ehrlick nor BSP should claim that many of his laughable ideas are "too goofy" for the Republican Party. Indeed, given their provenance and the investment corporations put into groups like ALEC, the Tentherism might be some of the best ideas at the core of the Republican Party, the best and most central ideas money can buy.
Photo: Zombie Draz Bunny. And yes, he caught those ideas from somewhere, from other Republicans and respectable conservatives. Bluestem can't remember him coming up with a single goofy notion on his onliness.
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