Ich bin ein Southerner!

I’ve stated more than a few times on this blog that “we’re all Southerners now.” I.e., the wrath, ridicule, and ugly hatred that has long been directed at Southerners is now directed at anyone who so dares disagree with TPTB. (Need I repeat my common festoon of boilerplate leftist ad hominem smears, you racist, inbred, ignorant, hate-filled, etc., etc., etc., rednecks?)

But beyond that, the ol’ Yanks/Southerners dichotomy is so last century. The “stronger states’ rights/less federal power” crowd lost. And now we’re all reaping what the victors of our most costly war had long ago sown.

And we’re all here because none of us like it.

Strange that there are so many of us “Yanks” up here who got swept up in the T.E.A. Party zeitgeist of 2009/2010, and who now fantasize about a saner, wiser, more politically-effective Ron Paul emerging from the shadows just before November 2012, riding boldly into Washington on his trusty steed and hacking that federal Leviathan back down to size.

I say “strange” only because the issues that got us Yanks all riled up sure seem like they have a lot in common with issues that, ahem, much earlier had gotten Southerners all riled up.

But of course, there’s nothing strange about it. The reason’s crystal clear to anyone with his eyes open.

While this nation was birthed in debate about the size and scope of the federal government relative to how much power should be doled out below (see, e.g., Hamilton vs. Jefferson)—and nearly killed itself over that same debate just a little under a century later—we’re not even having this debate today. Rather, the only debate Americans have been having over the past few decades—whether we’ve realized it or not—is whether we want to take the local or the express to absolute federal despotism.

(And it’s increasingly becoming a moot debate, as we’re only a few stops from our destination these days.)

The T.E.A. Party got its verve because enough people sensed, perhaps only viscerally, that we’ve passed a critical—and dangerous—inflexion point in the development of this dastardly mutation of this once liberty-loving republic.

Namely, with the cementing of Obamacare into law, the die had been cast.

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