"So Everything Went Wrong."

As a transplant to the Commonwealth, I'm always excited to see Virginia in the news, which it's been recently for any number of reasons, mostly not good. Our new Attorney General, one Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II (side note: when did "Jr." go out of style?) has filed a lawsuit against the federal government and its brand-new health care law, arguing that people who don't choose to buy health insurance aren't participating in interstate commerce (which the federal government has the power to regulate) and therefore aren't under the control of the federal government.

To wit: "The health care reform bill, with its insurance mandate, creates a conflict of laws between the federal government and Virginia. Normally, such conflicts are decided in favor of the federal government, but because we believe the federal law is unconstitutional, Virginia’s law should prevail."

I kept waiting in the days after the announcement of the suit (and the other states' suit) for someone to bring up Andrew Jackson and the Nullification Crisis. Perhaps liberals were too busy high-fiving each other and conservatives were too busy making up Thomas Jefferson quotations to delve into another situation in which a state butted up against the federal government.

Here's a seventh-grader's explanation of the crisis:

"In 1828, Congress passed a tariff. The New England manufacturers had a great plan for the tariff. Now New England could raise prices to sell out imported products (stuff from a different country). Then the southern planters didn't want to pay extra for manufactured goods. So Vice President Calhoun stepped in and said, “We don't have to pay.” So everything went wrong. Then two years later, on April 13, 1830, the Southerners held a dinner for states’ rights. At the dinner, a series of toasts were made. One of the toasts were made by Jackson. He stood up and said for his toast, “Our union must be preserved next to our liberty.” Then Congress lowered the prices of manufacturers’ goods but the Southerners refused it. So in 1833, Jackson got Congress to pay the Force Bill. The Force Bill gave power to the government to use the army and the navy if needed to enforce federal law. A compromise tariff was passed and accepted by South Carolina, the state that threatened to secede. Then the nullification crisis ended."

Here's Meacham on the crisis:

"After the nullification vote in November, Jackson was embarking on perhaps the most delicate mission of his life--how to preserve the Union without appearing so tyrannical and power-hungry that other Southern states might join with South Carolina, precipitating an even graver crisis that could lead to the secession of several states."

It works--the Union stays together for almost another 30 years. But Jackson is vilified in the media; cartoons appear of him wearing a crown, referring to him as "King Andrew" (I assume that this is because neither Hitler nor the Joker exist yet). And when he pulls the deposits out of the Bank of America in favor of a system of smaller banks, he's censured by the Senate, the first time it's ever happened in the 60 years of the country, and he spends the rest of his life trying (and eventually succeeding at) reversing it.

Jackson's a Democrat, maybe the first real one, and he realizes what the Democrats have always realized: that a strong federal government strengthens America, and a strong federal government will always be accused of tyranny. The Whigs and Republicans, as we'll see, campaign on the idea of states' rights and a small federal government, but from Jefferson to Bush, once they take power, they expand the executive branch's reach more and more.