Radical Reactionaries Using Nullification to Destroy the Union

How very appropriate during the sesquicentennial of the Civil War that congressional repugs should revive the strategy used by their philosophical predecessors to defend the plutocracy of slavery - but this time to protect the plutocracy of Wall Street.

Steve Benen:

Which leads us to the larger problem: what Republicans are embracing in this case is, in effect, nullification.

Congress passed a bill that was signed into law by the president. Last week, a Senate minority — not a majority, a minority — decided it simply won’t allow that law that’s already on the books to be executed.

In case this isn’t obvious, the American system of government isn’t supposed to work this way. Indeed, it’s pretty much the antithesis of our constitutional process.

Republicans may not care about this, but you should.

The GOP minority isn’t even questioning Cordray’s qualifications. Rather, Republicans are saying they refuse to allow existing law to function until Democrats meet the GOP’s demands and does Wall Street’s bidding. When the Senate minority is satisfied, they’ll consider allowing the law to function — if they feel like it.

As a matter of legal and institutional principles, Americans haven’t seen tactics like these since the Civil War. It led James Fallows to explain yesterday, “This strategy depends absolutely for its success on its not being called what it is: Constitutional radicalism, or nullification.” Jonathan Cohn made the same point last week, and Thomas Mann referenced a “modern-day form of nullification” in July.

Political tactics and schemes come and go, as politicians and parties win and lose. But what Republicans are doing now does real damage to the American system of government. It is, by any meaningful definition, a serious and important political scandal.

It's the same tactic, for the same reasons, and it's likely to lead to the same conclusion: a victory for the president and the federal government, but at a huge, almost unbearable cost to the nation.