here for the long haul

Yep, I've been told more than once that if I don't like what's going on in my country, I should just get out. Looks like the shoe may be pinching someone else's foot. I guess it bothers some folks that some of us got fed up the last eight years and took Thomas Jefferson's advice as expressed in the declaration:

"...Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(Okay, I understand that it was just an election and not a resurrection.) But wait, now that we've elected a new president (one who as a candidate ran on a set of fundamentally different notions than our previous administration) and our country seems to be changing course back toward our ideals, there are a bunch of folks (even while their confederate battle flags continue to flutter from their pickups and state capital grounds) who have changed their rhetoric. What I may not have understand earlier, when these folks were telling me, "If you don't like it here, leave!" was that they meant that I could pack up the entire state in my suitcase before walking out the door. Even if I'd thought I had that option, I'd still be here. I'm here for the long haul.

I agree with Warrior Tang's conclusion:

It is with interest then that I read about a State Sovereignty Movement which is encouraging state legislatures to issue declarations of their States' Rights under the 10th Amendment. As of this writing, assemblymen in 19 state legislatures have introduced some version of a State Sovereignty Act since late January, starting shortly after Barack Obama was inaugurated. I hope it is not news to anybody that President Obama is not a picture of the Aryan ideal. No matter how sanitary the text of such a proposal and no matter how well it legally conforms to actual states' rights, the context of these proposals is not exactly a context of pure legal scholarship. There might be a case for discussion of the proper legal roles of the state and federal governments; I don't think this is it.