Third Palmetto Republic

Nikki Haley will deliver her first State of the State Address, and the State paper has published the entirety of her prepared text. Haley has recently made news by speaking up against Obamacare and asking President Obama for permission to opt out of the legislation. It is sad and shocking that the leader of a sovereign state would ask for permission rather than assert her position. That makes her 0 for 1 in our book when it comes to being the Governor of South Carolina (as opposed to being a provincial officer of some collection of serfs) but I digress, let’s see what she has to say.

Haley opens her speech with this:

Let me start tonight with a tradition established by my predecessor, who recognized the certain truth that nothing said in this chamber tonight or done in this chamber tomorrow would be possible without the sacrifices and commitment of the men and women in uniform who bravely serve our nation. And so now let us pay tribute to those South Carolinians, those true heroes, who in the past year made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our state and of our country:

… and she goes on to name the soldiers from South Carolina who lost their life in 2010. Only, contrary to her statement, they didn’t lose their lives defending South Carolina, they lost their lives in an illegal (unconstitutional) war on the other side of the planet where no rational person could make the argument that they were participating in an action of self defense.

Now don’t get me wrong: I admire the men and women who decide to enlist in the military. I think they are brave and patriotic people. I realize that they have not reached the same political conclusions that I have, and so I believe their patriotism to be misguided, and their bravery to be misused. Unfortunately Mrs. Haley has opened her State of the State Address by reminding us all that we are subjects to a worldwide empire (the USA) and our brave men and women are used as pawns instead of as defenders of South Carolina.

Let’s move on:

For eighteen months I traveled our state and I told our citizens what I tell you now: government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people; it was never intended to be all things to all people. We have drifted far from that principle, that idea so critical to the future of our state and of our people.

So as we move forward tonight in discussion of the challenges and opportunities that lie in front of us, let’s not forget the words of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, who said: “There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”

It is time that we restore to the people of South Carolina a government that both knows and performs its intended role.

This is the type of rhetoric that got Nikki Haley elected, and it is encouraging to see our governor promoting these ideals. It’s true, it is past time that we restore a government that sticks to its intended role. Most importantly: it’s time we stand up to the federal government and put them back in their place, and make sure they perform their role (Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution), by nullifying each and every law that goes outside of said role!

However, it doesn’t appear that Haley sees the role of government the same way that we do here at Third Palmetto Republic:

I believe in the will of the people. I believe that it is our duty to follow that will and to engage the people of South Carolina in the governance of our state. And I believe that if we do that, if we move forward together with one vision, we can climb any mountain and prosper through every challenge, no matter how high, no matter how hard. (Ain’t no mountain high enough)

The responsibility to get there is a shared one, one that is in large part mine but is not mine alone. The legislature, the people, the governor – we must be committed, together, to moving South Carolina forward.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The people will save their government, if the government itself will let them.”

Words escape me at reading that last sentence. Here we are talking about putting government back in its box, about restoring it to its proper role, and she decides to quote Abraham Lincoln (the worst Tyrant in American history)? Not only that, but she is essentially saying here that she believes in mobocracy, in the unlimited rule of the majority, in the “will of the people.” Well, Mrs. Haley, the role of government is NOT to execute the will of the people. The role of government is to protect the individual rights of each and every person, regardless of the will of other people. I had high hopes for Nikki Haley but it is hard to keep the faith after reading a paragraph like that one.

Haley moves on to talk about the budget crisis and how she plans to go through and cut waste from every single office and agency. She fails to mention; however, the fact that about 3/4ths of the budget is federally mandated spending, and about 3/4ths of the revenue is federally provided. How can she say, with a straight face, that we have any control over our budget when so much of it is forced upon us?

Eventually the new Governor does allude to this situation when she starts talking about federal funding, without actually detailing just how large the problem is:

Tonight I am also announcing that my cabinet will stop the practice of working the system to get increases in federal funding simply for the sake of expanding our budgets.

South Carolina cannot continue to chase federal dollars without studying the larger impact of how accepting those dollars affects our spending and financial stability. We know all too well that with federal money comes strings, and with those strings come limitations, unaccounted for costs, and in many cases, unsustainable spending.

The days are over when Washington tells South Carolina, “If you want the money? Jump.” And South Carolina responds, “How high?”

We cannot jump without first considering where we are going to land. And South Carolina cannot afford to follow the federal government, which has thrown itself into a pit of growing deficits, irresponsible budgeting, and uncontrollable spending.

This is starting to sound good…

Starting tonight, South Carolina is a state that is focused on establishing our financial independence, controlling our own destiny, and empowering our people with the knowledge that their state government doesn’t jump for anyone.

Wow! That sounds like something we have written! It’s tempting to think that Haley, in the short course of giving one speech, has gone from an empire supporting, US Provincial officer to a bona-fide Governor! If she actually intended to follow through on the concepts behind that statement, then our work here would be done, and we could just close down this site and stop all of our activities.

Unfortunately, back in the real world Haley goes on to illustrate how she doesn’t really understand what it means to be independent, and has no intention of cutting the budgetary ties that chain us to the federal tit.

We can’t talk about the federal government or our budget without acknowledging the financial challenges that face us with the new health-care bill.

I had the pleasure of meeting with the president last month and asked him if he would consider repealing this law, as South Carolina citizens can’t afford it. He quickly told me “no.”

Our founding fathers always intended that we empower families first, then communities, then states, and last federal. Constitutionally, our states do and should have the ability to decide what is best for our citizens. And so I will continue to support the attorney general’s legal action against this intrusion.

But as I told the president, my job is to look for every avenue I can to deal with a situation that South Carolina can’t afford. I asked him, respectfully, if he would allow South Carolina an exemption from this bill. I appreciate his willingness to have an open dialogue, and his statement to me that if South Carolina met certain criteria, he would be open to allowing us to opt out.

I am working with members of my cabinet to find a solution that is economically sensible, conservative, and beneficial for the people of our state. The reality is that the federal health-care bill will cost this state $2.7 billion more by the year 2020.

We can’t afford or sustain those numbers. We must find an alternative.

The alternative is freedom through independence, but clearly Governor Haley doesn’t understand this. She set up the opportunity in this speech to talk about all of the federal mandates and programs that make us serfs instead of sovereign citizens, to detail all of the ways in which our state and our people are controlled by Washington DC… yet the only thing she talked about was the Affordable Health Care Law (Obamacare.)

Not one mention of the Federal Reserve and how we could establish a system of competing currencies in South Carolina to allow our citizens to free themselves from debt slavery and infinite inflation. Not one mention of Federal entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Welfare, Public Housing, etc. that the people of South Carolina never voted for yet have been forced to pay for. Not one mention of the mountains of Federal regulations and bureaucracy through the many unconstitutional federal departments such as DHHS, FDA, USDA, DoE, ATF, DEA, etc. that bury small businesses without the consent of the people of South Carolina. Not one mention of the hundreds of bases worldwide and unconstitutional wars that see our brave military personnel sacrificed on the altar of Empire instead of defending their homeland. Not one mention of the confiscation of wealth known as federal taxes that takes away the property that the people of South Carolina have earned. Not one mention of any of the substantive abuses weathered daily by the people of our state.

Instead, she only talked about the flavor of the day, the item in the news that couldn’t be less controversial here in South Carolina, as the clear and large majority disagree with the law. What’s worse, even in this one pathetic example of standing up to the Feds, she details how she “asked” the President (or King, as it were) to please “allow” us to opt out of the law. Nowhere does she make even the slightest mention of the word Nullification, or the concept of state sovereignty, and given her earlier reference to Lincoln, you can be sure she would never utter the “S” word.

Haley goes on to detail some of the minutia of state organization and department reorganization. I’ll spare you any discussion on this section and move right on to the conclusion of the address:

As many of you will come to know in the weeks and months ahead, the door to my office has a sign for all to see every time they walk through my doorway.

The sign says, “Can’t Is Not An Option.”

For too long, we have approached the problems facing South Carolina with the question, “Can we get this done?” It’s the wrong question, and predictably, almost always leads us to the wrong answer.

If we approach our challenges with the mindset that can’t is not an option, and begin to instead ask ourselves the question “How do we get to where we need to go?,” we will give the people of South Carolina a state that every other state in the country looks at and says, “That’s how you do it.”

That’s my South Carolina.

I know that together, we can make it happen.

Thank you, may God bless, and may He continue to smile on South Carolina.

The answer to the question “How do we get where we want to go?” is very simple: restore political independence to South Carolina. Nullify every single law that is outside of the charter of the Constitution. Get the FED out of South Carolina, get the Federal Bureaucrats out of South Carolina, bring our troops back home, restore our Sovereignty, and if that doesn’t work, Secede!

“But we can’t nullify federal laws,” you say, “and surely we can’t secede!”

Well my friends, Can’t Is Not An Option.