Florida Senate President: I Didn’t Really Mean I Would Shoot Dissidents; You Took Me Out of Context

Don Gaetz, president of the Florida state senate, recently responded to an attorney’s defense of Thomas Jefferson’s principle of state nullification of unconstitutional laws as follows:

Thank you for your email and for your passionate views.

Like you, I believe Obamacare is unconstitutional and wrong-headed policy. I have consistently voted in the Florida Legislature for legislation that affirms our state’s options, obligations and sovereignty under the United States Constitution. I am working every day to ensure the election of national candidates who will repeal and replace this extraordinarily bad policy.

As to nullification, I tend to favor the approach used by Florida’s first Governor, Andrew Jackson:

It is said that one evening, while he was president, General Jackson was interrupted in his reading in his bedroom by an alarmed military aide who breathlessly reported, “Mr. President, the “nullifiers” are in front of the Executive Mansion with torches and guns. They are screaming that each state has the right to decide for itself which federal laws to follow. They threaten to burn us down if you will not agree with them.”

Without lifting his head from his reading, Andrew Jackson said, “Shoot the first nullifier who touches the Flag. And hang the rest.”

Chaplain, I have sworn an oath on my father’s Bible before Almighty God to preserve, protect and defend the constitution and government of the United States. And that’s exactly what I intend to do. Count me with Andrew Jackson.

Senator Don Gaetz

A number of Floridians were up in arms about Senator Gaetz’s casual endorsement of firing on his own people. (Note that “firing on his own people” is a phrase we are permitted to use only in reference to foreign despots; anyone recommending such a course here is merely defending law and order.) The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is supposed to stay on the alert for cases of political extremism, uttered not a peep at this particular act of extremism. Probably just an oversight.

So Senator Gaetz played the “I was taken out of context” card. Note that his entire letter was reproduced, so it’s not clear how he could have been taken out of context, or in what context killing Floridians could have been an acceptable idea. Here’s his explanation:

That’s just an old tale of what was said about what Andrew Jackson said. I simply sent it to her as a way to try to let her know that you can still be civil about these issues and you don’t have to be outraged about every single thing. You can disagree without being uncivil.

So you teach people how to disagree without being uncivil by citing Jackson’s urge to execute people?

Finally, for a contemporary and systematic reply to Andrew Jackson’s Nullification Proclamation (which was actually written by Secretary of State Edward Livingston), read Littleton Waller Tazewell, whose work I excerpt toward the end of my book Nullification.

Anonymous

And when push came to shove, Jackson blinked. This was the proper thing to do. So Calhoun and SC DID nullify the tariff in the end.
For all Jackson’s faults (mass murder of Native Americans for a start) he at least avoided killing 850,000 people as our “greatest” president did.
Dave

Sounds like the union hysteria presently going on here in Michigan over the “right-to-work” legislation being passed. Now, RTW presents an interesting conundrum from a libertarian perspective, but when you attempt to correct the hysterics who make it sound like working for a living is being banned with a simple statement such as “No one should be required under threat of violence to give money to an organization they don’t want any part of,” one of their tactics is to redefine what violence is (One of my friends, a lawyer, actually claimed that something can be compulsory without relying on the threat of violence. Really? How do you even unpack that one?) .

I think such redefinition may really be a sort of coping mechanism a lot of people use to delude themselves about the real nature of what they support. Who wants to think of himself as supportive of violence? We’ll just use different words for it and change the subject.
http://twitter.com/LeRoyWhitman LeRoy Whitman

“I simply sent it to her as a way to try to let her know that you can still be civil about these issues” MEANS that to advocate Nullification (entirely legal, and thus truly civil) would be uncivil – and that he is saying, via Jackson, that those who are uncivil are against the country and can be shot (Machiavellianism at its clearest). Gos have mercy on these united states.
Peter van Ooy

And in the same letter he claims to have taken an oath to “protect and defend the constitution”. Shooting “nullifiers” seems to be quite the opposite, as Tom has eloquently argued the duty of states to nullify unconstitutional federal law on behalf of their citizens. In fact, nullification is one of the few tools a state has to tell the central politburo of the UN-constitutionality of this or that federal law. And no, “working hard to ensure the election of candidates who will help repeal…” is not in line with keeping aforementioned oath.
This would all be funny, but of course, it isn’t.
Epic fail, Mr. Gaetz
Anonymous

Excellent framing, Dave!!
Luke

Senator Don Gaetz can eat shit.
Jim

It is comical to think of the Senator, eyes welling with tears of patriotic pride, writing such buffoonish nonsense. The last line of the letter is surely the product of one scotch too many, hence the drama.

I do enjoy how the Senator puts the constitution and government before his alleged God and family, which now allows him to read the Ten Commandments as “Thou Shalt Kill according to the Law of Andrew Jackson, with whom I am well pleased.” So much for civilization!

Also lost on the Senator is the nagging problem that the purpose of nullification is to de-fang unconstitutional laws at the state level. The Senator even agrees that Obamacare is unconstitutional. But since the Senator apparently cannot distinguish between the constitutional limitations of government and the unconstitutional actions of the federal government, he thinks that defending the constitution means merely defending the State.

So much for God, Oath, and Constitution! Er, I mean … USA! USA! USA! USA!
Anders

I think there is a difference too between dealing with an angry mob and nullification per se. Real nullification shouldn’t involve telling the governor you’re going to burn down his mansion – simply it means that you won’t permit the feds to intervene.
Anonymous

Reminds of an excerpt from Buchanan’s book, where the Brits had an encounter with Hitler early on (I hope I got this right). When Gandhi was brought up, Hitler started ranting:

*** “Shoot Gandhi! Shoot Gandhi! Shoot Gandhi!” ***

The ostensibly refined Brits were appalled by this crude, little dweeb with the patent leather shoes … maybe Gaetz is wearing the same.
Anonymous

Maybe the nullifiers should shoot Gaetz before he shoots them. We can only imagine how much suffering might have been avoided if some compassionate person had shot a genocidal monster like Andrew Jackson.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mick-Price/100000748385088 Mick Price

“…I have sworn an oath on my father’s Bible before Almighty God to preserve,
protect and defend the constitution and government of the United States.
And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
I politician doing what he swore an oath to do? And protecting the constitution? All pigs fueled and ready to fly, sir!
Brian McCandliss

The true irony comes from the fact that he is a STATE senator, who Madison described in Federalist No. 46 as being the government which would command the militia against a Federal coup, “with arms in
their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their
common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their
affections and confidence.”
The current imperial regime stands history on its head, for only that can justify such abuses and excesses while claiming to uphold law and liberty in doing so.
D. Saul Weiner

This is a classic response to tyranny by a modern-day conservative. Bitching and moaning about a tyrannical program is OK. Actually taking substantive action to attack it is not. Other than trying to exploit it to gain electoral advantage.
Anonymous

The Senator would shoot his fellow Floridians for violating the constitution in his view by not accepting what he deems to be constitutional nullification by the federal government. He chastizes them for being uncivil in response to an uncivil federal government. If he were to be truthful about his actual position he would have to say “Might makes right and I’m too cowardly to stand against what I acknowledge is illegal and unconstitutional action by the federal government so don’t demand that I endanger my privileged position by fighting for what I claim to believe in”.i
liberranter

The problem lies in the fact that most state-level officeholders, who are mostly oxygen-thieving career parasites, aspire to federal office and the powers and perquisites that come with it. They couldn’t give two figs or a dam about their state offices or their local constituents. These are just stepping stones to “bigger and better [and more power-enhancing] things.” This mindset goes a long way toward explaining Gaetz’s attitude and why he is not about to see his state bite the hand that he one day hopes will regularly feed him.
http://www.facebook.com/brian.mccandliss Brian McCandliss

I would venture to say, rather, that we live in a hypocritical regime that wears the world’s biggest white hat to hide the black one under it, since it was established by mass-murder and censorship when Lincoln and the GOP ordered the killings of over 1/4 million who defended the national sovereignty of their states as was well-defined under international law since 1783.
And in this capacity, state politicians have ever since been lesser dictators to the higher ones at the federal level.
http://www.facebook.com/brian.mccandliss Brian McCandliss

To be fair, union-thuggery was simply blowback from the cronyism ensuing from the Lincoln-empire, that completed Hamilton’s dream of an aristocratic mercantile state. The Sherman Anti-trust act naturally only created more monopoly through bureaucracy, leading to the near-collapse of the economy and a natural halving of wages below competitive levels due to elimination of competition– which also prompted interventionism in European wars under the Wilson administration, as Murray Rothbard details excellently in “Wall Street, Banks and American Foreign Policy.”

This led to union-thugs and politicians taking similar advantage to dupe workers into puppets for them– as did Lenin’s Proletarian stooges whom he termed “useful idiots who would sell him the rope to hang them with–” as this came together tragically in the war and other ingredients which enabled Bolshevism to overturn 2300 years of Political Science since the time that Aristotle condemned collectivism as rank sophistry.
Anonymous

Senators swear to defend the “government” of the United States? Since when? According to senate dot gov they take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, NOT the Constitution and the government.

Florida how do you elect idiots like this?????
ksb26

“Chaplain, I have sworn an oath on my father’s Bible before Almighty God
to preserve, protect and defend the constitution and government of the
United States.”

As for the people? To hell with them, I guess. Reminds me of that German poet who wrote: “The people have lost faith in the government. Therefore the government has elected to dissolve the people in order to form a new one.”

Had Mr Gaetz been a member of the politburo I’m sure he would have cheered on Russia tanks as they crushed the Prague Spring in 1968.
FanofDrWoods

Who would have thought that a member of the government would be so hostile towards one who opposes government power? Truly shocking.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VUUCFFE4VG7TS6BTMEJZ7QUHJU goodwater

Yeah, but Lincoln picked up Jackson gauntlet and hundreds of thousands were killed in the War between the States.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=570811527 Jaret Glenn

Little(ton) known fact: Littleton Waller Tazewell (Bradford) founded the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
http://www.facebook.com/lorin.c.partain Lorin Chane Partain

Jackson was not a monster. Aside from the Indian episode he was actually a very good President, relatively speaking of course.
Anonymous

How many genocides does a need to be a monster?
ND52

That’s who @Capn_Mike:disqus was referring to in his last sentence @yahoo-VUUCFFE4VG7TS6BTMEJZ7QUHJU:disqus .
john

And goodwater is referring to the fact that Jackson set the precedent of trampling on states rights and usurping power for the presidency.