Kathie Glass (shown) is the Libertarian nominee for Texas governor, and she is spreading the word of federalism and fearless opposition to federal overreach during her “Texas 254 Tour.”
Glass chose the number 254 because that is the number of counties in the Lone Star State and she plans to visit each one before Election Day in November. Glass has a hard row to hoe in her quest to be the state’s chief executive. She faces Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate and current state attorney general; and Wendy Davis, state senator and abortion advocate.
During a campaign stop in Mineral Wells, Texas, Glass continues on a swing dubbed the “Red River Tour” that passed through Texarkana, Bowie County, and Wichita County. At every stop, Glass is greeted by throngs of patriots who support her message of state sovereignty and resistance to federal seizure of state land. In Wichita County, for example, Glass spoke at a gathering of Texans protesting recent efforts by the Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to seize control of rich ranch land running along the Red River.
“Washington is broken and the two-party system is corrupted by special interests,” said Glass, as reported by the Mineral Wells Index. “If we are to save our liberty, our Constitution and our country, we have to chart a new course — away from Washington and outside the corrupt two-party system.”
Speaking of property rights on her website, Glass writes:
Defeat BLM land grabs. End eminent domain. Stop toll road boondoggles, public/private partnerships, and other forms of cronyism. Defend water rights from theft by federal, international, state, or local authorities, commissions, boards, or private entities using the machinery of government. Beat back any effort — no matter how small — to disarm Texans.
Glass told protesters that liberty is threatened by a federal government habitually violating the Constitution and the principle of federalism upon which it is built.
So committed to the Constitution is Glass that her campaign slogan — “Less Government, More Freedom” — is similar in spirit to the motto of The John Birch Society: “Less Government, More Responsibility, and — With God’s Help — a Better World.”
The section of Glass’s campaign website explaining her purpose for running strikes a chord with all constitutionalists concerned about the future of our Republic and liberty.
I am Kathie Glass. I love liberty, Texas, the Constitution, and America. I am a Texan, patriot, wife, mother, lawyer, self-made woman, business owner — like you, I am lots of things. But the most important thing about me is not what I am but what I want to be, and why.
I want to be the next governor of Texas because everything that I love is under attack by an increasingly tyrannical federal government with no effective resistance. We will lose it all if we do not act, quickly and effectively.
Washington is broken, and the two party system is corrupt — corrupted by cronyism and special interests. Neither will fix itself. And neither can be reformed from within.
How would a Governor Glass go about righting the ship of state? She explains:
When the federal government exceeds its constitutional authority, our constitutional design requires that states and citizens push back by nullifying unconstitutional federal acts, demanding that our Ninth and Tenth Amendment sovereignty be respected and constitutional balance restored. This, we have failed to do. Without that resistance, the federal government has had free rein to do as it pleases. And what the federal government has pleased to do, is act as a tyrant, treating us as subjects to be ruled.
That position should see no disagreement from constitutionalists.
First, it is the duty of state governors and legislators to refuse to enforce every act of the federal government that exceeds its constitutionally defined powers.
As James Madison explained in the Virginia Resolution of 1798 that:
in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.
Alexander Hamilton added in The Federalist, No. 78, “There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the constitution, can be valid.”
In other words, Glass is correct in her understanding of the Constitution: It is the job of the states to stop federal overreach.
The most effective weapon in the war against federal overreach is nullification.
Nullification occurs when a state, county, city, or other local entity holds as null, void, and of no legal effect any act of the federal government that exceeds the boundaries of its constitutional powers.
Nullification recognizes that states possess the right to invalidate any federal measure that exceeds the few and defined powers allowed the federal government as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.
States (and their legal subdivisions) retain the right to act as arbiters of the constitutionality of federal acts because they formed the union, and as creators of the compact, they hold ultimate authority as to the limits of the power of the central government to enact laws that are applicable to the states and the citizens thereof.
Despite criticism by those who advocate for a more powerful federal government, nullification would not lead to anarchy, as it is only unconstitutional federal acts that will be subject to state invalidation.
Glass understands this point, as well, stating, “This emphasis on Texas does not mean that we are turning our back on America; just the opposite. We’re taking our country back, one state at a time, starting with Texas.” She emphasizes that she is not calling for secession, but for “demanding that our Constitution be enforced, not terminated.”
Texas, and her sister states, must prepare for the collapse of the federal Leviathan and the devastation that will result from the crumbling of those walls. Glass has a plan for that fateful day, as well:
We live in a surveillance state that could easily become a police state. To resist this tyranny, we have to chart a new course — away from Washington and outside the two party system. The time will come when the federal government is not just broken but totally collapsed and without a functioning currency. When that day comes, Texas will be forced to do without many things we have come to rely on from the federal government — like almost 40% of our state budget. Texas will have no recourse but to stand on our own two feet, as we should have done all along.
Part of Glass’s plan includes “protect our civil liberties by forbidding its use by the NSA’s San Antonio super-spy center.” Similar efforts to shield citizens from the never-blinking eye of the federal spy apparatus are underway in several states. Glass spoke Saturday at a campaign stop in San Antonio promoting her call to “pull the plug on the NSA.”
By all appearances, constitutionalists who recognize the crucial role nullification will play in the protection of our liberties and the union will have to decide whether to elect a Republican nominee (attorney general Greg Abbott) who promises to stand firm in his resistance to federal oppression or a third-party candidate, Kathie Glass, who promises to be brave enough to “cowboy up” and drive the stampeding federal government back inside its constitutional corral.
Photo: Kathie Glass
Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels nationwide speaking on nullification, the Second Amendment, the surveillance state, and other constitutional issues. Follow him on Twitter @TNAJoeWolverton and he can be reached at [email protected].
