Ohio Sovereignty Amendment

Just read about this in my Columbus Dispatch feed. It looks as if a group of teabaggers is trying to get a Amendment to the State Constitution on the ballot, which would implant some of the extreme right wings' ideas into Ohio's Constitution. The gist of it is this:

" Among other things, the Ohio Sovereignty Amendment would allow juries to nullify laws; expand the right to bear arms and maintain militias; permit recall of elected officials by petition signatures alone; ban federal enforcement of laws except through a county sheriff; and require all public school operations through the 12th grade be regulated only at the local district level."

Sounds like typical teabagger lunacy to me, but if they somehow push it through, it could make Ohio into its own breakaway republic, with the county sheriffs ruling over us like a class of petty warlords (see Sheriff Joe Arpaio). If an elected official makes an unpopular decision, or even if they piss off people (read: corporations) who can raise enough money to push through a mass petition, they're kicked out of office. Local schools can teach whatever they want. It also means that at a time when the state's economy isn't doing so great, we'd be cutting ourselves off from Federal aid.

So, basically, there are increasingly vehement groups out there trying to dissolve the governmental structures that hold our society together.

Actually, in following the Dispatch's link to the home page of this movement, I was surprised to find that it in turn is associated with the former Democratic representative Jim Traficant, who has now joined the Tea Party movement. For a definition of the Tea Party movement, see Demagogy.