Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

The last time the Republicans held the Kentucky House was 1921.  They’ve never had the State Legislature and the Governorship at the same time, until now.  They convened one week ago, and they have quickly demonstrated they know what they want to do, and they know how to get it done.  This level of legislative competence is the result of weeks of planning and consultation.  I’ve no doubt that Gov. Matt Bevin deserves a lot of credit for bringing everyone together.

They decided to do the hard stuff first.  Get it off the table, and don’t allow the opposition time to jam the works.  So in the first six legislative days they (1) became the nation’s 27th Right to Work state, (2) abolished the Kentucky version of Davis-Bacon (requiring union wages on State jobs),  (3) passed a restrictive abortion law, and  (4) threw out the Board of Trustees of the troubled University of Louisville, allowing Gov. Bevin to appoint new ones. Now they’re in adjournment until early February.  The State Constitution only gives them 30 legislative days this year, so time is at a premium.

Senate President Stivers is an ardent and seasoned advocate of the Article V BBA, and he has designated a Senate sponsor.   Our Resolution has passed the Kentucky Senate in the past, and we have a 64-36 split in the House.  Based on its first week’s work, you can say with confidence that the Kentucky legislative leadership will pass what it wants to pass, and it wants the BBA.  We should get Kentucky in early March, at the latest.  Wyoming and Idaho should be done by then as well.  Arizona should be close behind, and there’s no reason Wisconsin can’t complete its work by then as well.  When that happens, no later than April, we’ll be at 33, and all eyes will be on South Carolina, Montana and Minnesota.  Virginia, unfortunately, will have adjourned.

Once we get to 33 someone will notice what we’re up to.  If not, I’ll perform the ancient Japanese rite of seppuku, and disembowel myself.  I can’t entirely blame the media for the neglect.  The Obama/Trump transition is the story of the month, and all the action seems to be in D.C.  But we will get noticed eventually, and it can’t happen soon enough for me.

My anticipation is based on my interaction with the California liberals I occasionally associate with.  They’re pretty normal people, except for their politics.  These people like the BBA, a lot.  And I think a whole lot of rank and file Democrats are going to ask themselves, and their political representatives, “With Trump and the Republicans running Washington, why wouldn’t we want to rein them in with a Balanced Budget Amendment?”   I have a very strong hunch that Democratic State Legislators in Maryland, New Mexico and Nevada will not want to rescind their outstanding Article V applications.  Is it really good politics to be opposed to balancing the budget?

There’s always the boogie man of the runaway convention, but five of the most Democratic States in the union  –  Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Illinois and California  –   have passed Article V Resolutions to overturn Citizens United.  If those five State Legislatures realize the runaway argument is specious, what’s the problem?

Since he won the election I haven’t heard Trump, or anyone associated with him, say one word about federalism, about returning power to the States, and the people.  The whole concept may never cross his mind.   He’s in charge of the federal government, so why should he try to reduce its, and his, power?    But I think there’s a strong constituency for federalism, and it happens to be concentrated in the one place it can do the most good  — in the 50 State Legislatures of this country.  Once these people really “get” Article V, once they understand its potential, I think they’re going to run with it.  And they won’t need any help from Donald Trump.

 

In the Article V movement, we don’t use the term “states rights”.  After Reconstruction ended in 1876 the South used “states rights” to impose segregation and Jim Crow laws on their black citizens.  In 1948 Strom Thurmond ran as a segregationist on the States Rights ticket, and won South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.   To my ears, “states rights” still means segregation and Jim Crow.

Federalism is a more general, and neutral, term, and it’s what we use.  But there is no denying that states rights are an aspect of federalism, and if our movement succeeds the rights of the States will be enhanced.  That’s a good thing.  We want power taken from the globalists and returned to the nation.  We want power taken from the federal government and returned to the States.  We want power taken from the States and returned to local government.  We want power returned to the people.

To which the left responds, “What about Alabama?”  White Republicans have a lock on the State government of Alabama.  There are very few white Democrats, and very few black Republicans, and the party system is more or less racial.  If Alabama was left on its own, would its black citizens be somehow disadvantaged yet again?  Can we trust the whites of Alabama, who run the government, to be fair with their black citizens?

This is the question people in California ask themselves.  There’s a prejudice against whites from the Deep South, which we’ll get to see in the Sessions hearings.  It’s the reason there is not a national consensus in favor of federalism.  In this Age of Trump, federalism looks tempting to Californians.  But what about Alabama?  Can it be trusted?

To which I respond, Please see Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a highly popular black Republican.  What the Republicans of Alabama need to do is find themselves another Tim Scott, and put him in the Senate to replace Sessions.  Then maybe we’ll get federalism, and states rights to boot.

 

 

To me, Trump’s most attractive feature is his enemies.  You don’t have to like a guy to be on his side in a fight.  It all depends on who he’s fighting, and the people out to destroy Trump are, at bottom, opposed to what this country stands for, what it’s all about.  George Soros is a prime example, but he stands out only because he’s honest about it.  He’s a Hungarian Jew, a Davos Man, an internationalist, and a man of the world.  He doesn’t like this country, its history, or the people in it.  In part, because he and his ilk are out to take Trump down, I’ve got to root for the guy, as much as I don’t care for him, personally.

Based on what we’ve seen since the election Trump will be a successful President, and potentially a transformational one.  The market is full of rational exuberance, and we’re in a secular bull run that will last another decade.  Prosperity is just around the corner.

It takes peace and prosperity to be a winner, and I think peace is coming too.  The only people Trump wants to fight are the jihadis, and we’ll make quick work of them.  With Russia fully on board, all the powers of the world will be aligned against them, and the only question is how much damage they cause in their death throes.  The American military will need to cooperate with Russia’s, and it will be a good learning exercise for all involved.  We’ve been planning on fighting the Russians for 72 years, since 1945.  But we’re not going to fight them.  It is not in our national interest to fight the Russians.  Not now, and not ever.  Look at a globe.  If there were ever two neighboring countries who had less to fight over, I’d like to know who they are.

It would be nice if someone in the Trump circle had some imagination, and realized Anchorage, Alaska would be the perfect venue for the first Trump-Putin summit.  This the heart of what once was Russian America, which extended south all the way to Fort Ross, just north of San Francisco.

They could attend services at the St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral, where Putin could mingle with his co-religionists, most of them Aleuts.  If there was time, they could make a quick side trip to Kodiak, home of the heart of the Russian Orthodox Church of America, the Holy Resurrection Cathedral.  This is the home of St. Herman, a Russian Orthodox priest, and the patron saint of the North American Church.

Putin is a man who is said to have a heart of ice.  If anything could melt it, it would be a visit to this ancient and remote outpost of Russian civilization, and what remains of it.  Mainly, his fellow congregants in the Russian Orthodox faith.  They’ll be glad to see him.

 

Congress is poised to pass the REINS Act, which would require Congressional approval of any administrative regulation costing $100 million or more.  Obama has issued over 600 such regulations, and none of them would be affected.  The REINS Act will be a restraint on the Trump administration, which, hopefully, won’t need restraining, at least in this regard.  For this to have an actual positive impact, a Democratic President would need to be in power.  So, for the time being, this bill is useless.

Nonetheless, Congress will be mighty pleased with itself.  It did something, even if it doesn’t do any good.  All too typical.  Why don’t they make the REINS Act retroactive for the last eight years, so those 600 Obama regs would need Congressional approval?  And why limit it to $100 million dollar regulations?  Why not $1 million dollar ones?  And since, in fact, a regulation is a law by another name, why should any regulation, which has the force of law, go into effect without Congressional approval?

Congress just doesn’t have the time.  They’re too busy.  Doing what, you ask?  Making sure they get reelected.  That’s Job One, Job Two, and Job Three.  If it weren’t for the constant pressure of facing another election, a Congressman might be able to put in the eight hours a day of legislative work needed to supervise the federal government.

Term limits is the answer.  Article V is the way to get them.  Something to talk about at the Nashville Convention of States, on lucky 7-11.

It’s because of women, and the way we treat them.  Islamic society is starkly patriarchal.  Women are chattel, who belong to their fathers.  It’s not uncommon for a young girl to be married off to her paternal uncle, or first cousin.  She has no say, no right.  Once married, she belongs to her husband.  She’s not fully human, to our eyes.

In America, and most of the West, women are free to choose.  They decide if, when, and to whom they marry, and they decide how long that marriage will last.  American courts universally defer to the mother when custody of children is an issue, and an American man who runs off on his family will be made to pay the price, if he can be found.  A lot of American women are sexual provocateurs, and enjoy showing off the flesh.  Such behavior in Islam is a death warrant.

I could go on, but it’s self evident.  A society is based on families, and the way families are structured affects everything.  A rigidly patriarchal family structure produces a rigidly hierarchical government.  The Absolute Nuclear Family, ours, produces democracy.

Tacitus, some two thousand years ago, was the first to describe the ANF, as it was practiced by the German tribes he studied.  Their descendants, the Anglo-Saxons, brought the ANF with them to Britain.  The Normans who came later also brought the ANF structure, which is almost universal in Scandinavia.

So the English who came to Jamestown, and then Plymouth, brought the Absolute Nuclear Family with them, and it is the American way of life we know today.  It was perfect for settling a continent, because one of its central features was that a young married couple were expected to provide a home for themselves.  They were completely free from any interference from either of their parents.  And the parents had no legal obligations to them.  They were on their own, legally.

What such a young couple needed was land, and America had a whole lot of that to offer.  For generation after generation American women produced eight, ten, twelve, thirteen children, and these children would have eight, ten, twelve children of their own.  My direct ancestor, Thomas Pettyjohn II, was a thirteenth child, and seventh son, born after the death of his father.  He married a cousin and they had twelve of their own.  That’s the old Absolute Nuclear Family in action.  And these people spread out all across the country, north and south.  From Virginia to Delaware to Ohio to Indiana to South Dakota.

I believe the ANF is responsible for the English success in settling America, as opposed to the French or the Spanish.  French and Spanish women refused to come to the New World, so the French and the Spaniards married Native women.  But the English women would come, and that made all the difference in the world.  And it was the lure of having an Absolute Nuclear Family, and land, all of their own, that brought them to Virginia.  Many were mail order brides, given clothes and other necessaries, and free passage to Virginia.  They were given a place to stay while they decided which of the numerous young men who sought their hand they would pick.  A successful suitor had to pay 120 lbs. of prime tobacco, worth $5,000 today, to reimburse the Virginia Company.  They were delighted to pay.

These young women were not required to pick anyone.  If they decided not to marry, that was their right.  Most did, of course, and these are among the earliest Mothers of America, whose offspring number in the tens of millions.

If I was rich I’d do a movie about one of those ships, bringing a boat load of mail order brides to Virginia in 1618, and what happened to them after they got there.  It could be quite romantic, come to think of it.