11/06/14 – Michael Boldin – The Scott Horton Show

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All right, y'all, welcome back.
Now it's time to talk to Michael Bolden from the Tenth Amendment Center.
That's TenthAmendmentCenter.com.
Welcome back to the show.
Michael, how you doing?
I'm pretty awesome, Scott.
Thanks for having me on.
Very happy to have you back on the show.
I like this project.
I like the Tenth Amendment best.
Out of the amendments.
Strict constructionist.
Me.
But so, yeah, let's talk about the elections.
Now, I don't care about Republicans and Democrats, and I know you don't.
I don't care about red and blue, and I know you don't.
But I do care about, well, same thing as you, the decentralization of power and, you know, the benefits to liberty for the people of this country.
And so it seems like, according to y'all's press release you put out here from the Tenth Amendment Center, you've got some good news for me from the election, which must not have anything to do with John McCain being the new head of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Oh, I didn't even realize that.
That's that's horrible news.
I mean, and I know Giraldi reminded me of that yesterday.
I thought, oh, no.
Yeah.
Things couldn't get worse than having McCain in charge of anything, especially there.
But we don't focus any of our energy on the federal level because we realize that it doesn't matter if Republicans win, because in a few years people are going to be clamoring for Democrats because how bad the Republicans are.
And then a few years later, they're going to clamor for the Republicans again because the Democrats are so awful.
And I'm sure we're exactly the same in thinking on that.
But yes, there were some positive things that happened on the state level on Tuesday.
And I think if people start putting more of their attention closer to where it should be, which is if we're talking about the advancement of liberty, that's towards the individual.
The closer you get your activism towards the individual, the more success you can have.
If you spend all of your time, your energy, your money and your work and your activism on federal level stuff, I can guarantee you are going to fail if you want to advance liberty.
So that's why we're excited about a few of these ballot measures that actually passed.
I think one of the big ones, at least in my book, I think is is measure 91 in Oregon.
The fact that they are now, well, along with Alaska, third and fourth states to fully defy Washington, D.C. on the issue of marijuana prohibition, I think this is huge and it's instructive because if you look at a city like Denver, Colorado, where that state legalized two years ago, there are now 400 stores in operation in flat-out defiance of federal law.
Congress says it's illegal.
The executive branch says it's illegal.
All the federal agencies say it's illegal.
The IRS is trying to get involved to try to shut this down.
But still, when you open the door and you allow the market to grow, and yes, I intended that pun, that shows that the market is going to overpower the strength of even governments.
And while the end result for liberty isn't the idea of, OK, let's tax and regulate, that isn't pure freedom, obviously, but this is a very strong step forward and it's up to people who believe in more liberty to educate and activate for something better moving forward.
But the door is certainly open.
And what I like about, not to just keep rambling on this, what I really like about Oregon's measure 91 is it was a twofer.
Not only did they just legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, but they also are authorizing the growth, production, and commerce of industrial hemp.
And this is a product that is used in everything from clothing to paper goods to oils, food products.
I mean, I can go to a Whole Foods and pick up tons of foods made with hemp, but unfortunately this hemp is forced to be imported.
It's more expensive because it has to be imported.
And that's positive news all around.
Yeah, well, certainly a big part of what's so important about it is just proving that it's OK.
Look, you can do it.
I mean, I got to say, I'm amazed.
I don't keep up with this kind of thing.
And so I didn't even realize that it was on so many ballots.
And I'll note that where it lost in Florida, I read they had to get 60 percent to pass in Florida.
They had 58, but that wasn't good enough.
I mean, Florida is a place where you wouldn't expect something like this to have positive results.
But yeah, 58 percent is huge.
The interesting part, just a side note, a state constitutional amendment was passed in Florida a few years ago that got like 51 percent.
That now requires everything to get 60 percent.
So the whole idea of this whole voting thing is very convoluted and messy.
But sometimes things do end up with very positive results.
And a few things happen in Arizona, I think, that are just as positive, if not even better.
Sure.
Do tell about Arizona, then.
So Arizona, there's two.
The less big one was Proposition 303.
This is a new state statute approved by the vote of 78 percent to 22 percent, where they are, in essence, nullifying some FDA restrictions.
They are going to allow, and they're basically taking a page out of the medical marijuana playbooks, what happened here in California back in the mid-90s, saying, you know what?
There are some people who are extremely ill, and they want to use certain products or medicines, but the FDA does not allow it.
They're called experimental medicines.
So this was called the right-to-try ballot measure, that now Arizona is basically saying, even if the FDA doesn't approve it, in our state, if you fit certain, and I don't know exactly what the parameters are.
I'm sure it's very limited.
But they are opening the door.
It's footing the door, saying, you know what?
Even though the FDA is not allowing it, we're going to allow it within our state, and I think that's very positive.
Oh, man, that is so huge.
I had not heard about that at all.
But first of all, that is such an important issue for all people of all ages and all different descriptions all across this country, the crime of the FDA.
Some of the stuff I've read about that, and the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people killed by their neglect, and the way that they run that system is an absolute nightmare, beyond what I think people could imagine.
It's a nightmare, the FDA system there.
And so, one, that is huge, just on the face of it, that people in Arizona are going to have that route around.
And I do hope that medical companies are going to start picking up and moving there, making sure, doing whatever they can to make sure that that can happen for people.
But also, the other thing is, boy, does that prove how much the people of this country do not love this government, do not believe any longer that, well, geez, if there's a problem with quack medicine, probably what we should do is centralize all decision-making in Washington, D.C., and let them worry about it.
We don't believe in that anymore.
And here's the other wrinkle there, too, is the old people lobbies.
I mean, it must have been the, you know, I don't know if it was the AARP or what all lobbies were in on this in Arizona, but there are other states in the union where you have huge percentages of senior citizens who are very democratically engaged and have a tremendous interest in seeing the liberalizing of laws like this.
So I think this could, you know, really herald a movement, probably, if it gets publicized enough.
And interestingly enough, that one passed, the vote was 78% to 22%.
I mean, it was just an absolute crush.
And I do believe, and I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that two other states have already passed similar, legislatively passed statutes along this line, Colorado and Louisiana.
I don't know if they're effectuating it or what, but the way I look at it and living here in California, I watched it happen.
This is basically how the medical marijuana movement started.
It was very limited.
They passed it.
They said, oh, you can't do this.
Oh, it's just ceremonial.
It's a nice symbolism.
But eventually some business person decided, you know what, now that they passed this thing, I'm going to open up a store.
And when that store opens up, the market comes to it.
It creates money.
It encourages people to do the same.
And then another store opens.
So I do hope that this will follow that same path.
It does remain to be seen how things are going to go, though.
Yeah, well, of course, the feds have so much influence over the companies that they'll have to stay in line one way or the other.
But then again, there are a lot of new biomed companies around.
It's not such a stagnant industry.
Yeah, I don't know the industry all that well.
What I do know is that the FDA is evil.
Where I actually learned a lot of what you're talking about is reading old articles at harrybrown.org.
Harry wrote a lot of stuff about the FDA and how the FDA kills.
So I'm sure a lot of that stuff is still out there.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I'm trying to think.
For some reason, I'm thinking what I read was at independent.org.
And then but also reinforce this with talking with Anthony Gregory about this, about where, yeah, it could be in the millions and millions of people killed by the FDA, more than even killed by the Pentagon.
Hang tight.
We'll be right back with Michael Bolden from the Tenth Amendment Center, Tenth Amendment Center dot com in just a sec.
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Hey, guys.
Welcome back to the show.
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I'm talking with Michael Bolden.
He is at the Tenth Amendment Center.
Tenth Amendment Center dot com.
And the headline is states flex muscles and and more like people of states through direct ballot initiatives flex muscles assert sovereignty in midterm elections.
Again, Tenth Amendment Center dot com.
And now we're talking about Arizona and you're telling me that they they approved this thing telling the FDA to go to hell.
They can try experimental medicines that they want to that kind of thing.
But now according to your press release here, there's a lot more to it than that was it and it's an entirely separate thing or there was or it's the same thing that just says actually what does it say this prop 122?
It's a whole separate one.
It's it's a state constitutional amendment.
So it's part of a state constitutional now where they put together a mechanism for the people of the state of Arizona to in essence reject any federal at participation and enforcement of federal acts within the state of Arizona.
So they're basically taking this idea that comes all the way back to James Madison who said, you know when the federal government does stuff you don't want it to do whether it's unconstitutional or just bad policy.
The number one thing that he recommended was the word repugnance and in the definition of the time that meant disobedience a refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union was the exact quote from James Madison.
And now in the Arizona State Constitution, they now have a mechanism for basically a federal policy review to say, you know what this can be initiated by a vote of the people through ballot measure through state legislation.
We're going to pick and choose federal acts and say now we're not going to put any resources towards it.
And this is a very powerful thing because most federal programs most federal regulatory schemes rely extremely heavily.
I mean, that's just so heavily on resources on a state level enforcement.
So when there's a federal gun measure, for example, that's enforced it may be like one or two federal ATF agents that go out on a federal raid but 10 local police that are basically carrying all the water the same goes for marijuana dispensary raids.
There may be one or two federal DEA agents, but it's the local people that actually do all the hard work and if a state now now that they have this mechanism in Arizona, and it's very obvious and it passed it was a close vote, but it passed now they can actually go ahead and turn around and start using it on stuff that remains to be seen.
I know the people who funded it.
One of the main guy who put up his personal money and mortgaged his house Jack built this.
He's a member of our organization here at the Tenth Amendment Center, and he's told me that you know, this isn't just some grandstanding thing.
He has plans.
I don't know exactly sure what he's going to work on first, but he's like Michael this thing passes.
We are going to use it immediately and so hopefully we'll see that happen start starting now.
So how broadly is it written?
It allows for new referendum, but what about the state legislature if there's something that they want to go ahead and side with the people versus the feds on something certainly and it just create but the thing is you can't really trust politicians and they states could do this all the time.
They could in essence just pass a bill saying we're not going to participate but politicians tend to be pretty weak need and they don't like doing stuff unless they're really pushed to do it.
But this is declaring a doctrine that yeah, you're damn right and we're going to keep doing things like this if we want and we know you object, but we object.
So how do you like that?
Yeah, and it's part of the state constitution now too.
So that's it's a pretty big deal and it makes it pretty out in the forefront and I do like the idea that they have also turned it into can be initiated by the people it was set.
So they've already had individual or grassroots initiated ballot measures, but this lowered the threshold so it no longer can own has to be funded just by rich people or people who probably benefit a lot from the power of the state, but it can be more of a grassroots project.
It's a much lower threshold to get it done man.
Yeah, that's a huge one.
And now can you talk to me a little bit about California?
I read that they made virtually all drug possession misdemeanor offenses at worse.
Now, I actually just saw the headline this morning over at Liberty crier.com, but I don't actually know the details on it.
What I do know is if that really is the case that is massive again.
We're talking about the the partnership between state and federal.
Well, the federal government doesn't want anybody to do anything that they make their own choice.
That's the way I look at it.
And most of the states are like that too.
But when you see something positive like this, if California really is going to stop doing this, that means it's not only going to affect and improve policy and Liberty in California of all places, but it will also have a strong impact on whether the federal government is going to be able to carry out what they want to do another two for and I think that is a really positive.
I do have to look into details to see how it's really going to play out.
Well, you know, I read a bit about it and they were first of all, it wasn't just drug possession.
It was also they were raising the dollar amount on for what counts as felony theft and then I think even retroactively they're going to go back and review all kinds of nonviolent felonies, but then, you know, drug possession up to pretty major amounts.
I think it's still is now a misdemeanor and they're going to go back and apparently review and start letting people out who are in there on felony possession only charges from what I read of it.
I'm trying to remember where I where I read it which website it was and that's here in Boeing Boeing or one of those had a pretty good breakdown of it and man Michael it was severe.
It sounded like a real rollback of the police state in California.
I mean, not the ability of the cops to do whatever they want to whoever they want.
They still have that power.
I'm sure sure.
Yeah, I didn't mean that not all encompassing but just penalties on some of these on some of these crimes have been greatly relaxed.
It looks like well, and I think it's very easy for people who understand what Liberty really is.
It's the the barrel of a gun.
I think it's very easy easy to get bogged down in negativity and pessimism because everywhere you turn there's always something there's always some problem in some bad thing and someone threatening to use violence to force you to do something a certain way but Rothbard even wrote about this a decades ago.
He basically said that the thing that plagues libertarians is this needless and debilitating pessimism.
So I think it's great that you see like I do these even if they're narrow victory something is positive what Liberty needs to gain a strong foothold is a foot in the door a crack a tiny crack and I believe it can grow and I think the marijuana movement is really proof of that.
Yeah, well and you know another part of this and it's something that we talked about before and it's easy to talk about as libertarians and we're you know, we don't have to be married to either side.
It's always good to try to you know, confuse the issue for a run-of-the-mill liberal or conservative nationalist in order to set them straight a little bit.
Of course, the the liberal nationalist knee-jerk is that you know anything quote-unquote States rights at all or anything perceived like that is really just an excuse to oppress black people or something like that.
And of course, I know as you always do you hit him right back with sanctuary cities and legalized pot and the right to die in Oregon and whatever other kind of left-wing issues that these are all outright nullification and interposition and you are for them all aren't you and then they go.
Oh, huh?
I guess yeah, I have to be and then of course on for the right-wingers you got to argue gun rights and other issues that you know are more along their lines, but I think people just you know, we all go to government school.
Most of us go to government school and we just kind of learn it from such a young age that all decisions flow from DC.
That's just how it is.
So I think you know, and speaking of these little victories these narrow victories it really they're they're small proofs that it does not have to be that way and we actually can push back from the local level up, you know, what we actually call most of what you just this is there's an official phrase for most of that, you know presenting it in ways that people appreciate, you know, it's called the Horton rule.
Yeah, it's the out left the left and out right the right and you've said this stuff for years and it's very true and it's actually very effective.
We've been able to build really strong campaigns by just instead of trying to sell everybody on everything all the time finding out what's important to that person and we can always present a solution to them that will advance the issues that are important to them.
Yeah, well, and of course it's easy and any libertarian can do it because any libertarian is automatically better than the right and the left on all the things that they are good on we're even better than them on all those things.
So we can always find ways to agree with them and then bring them even further our way.
Absolutely.
I recently had a friend who's a pretty staunch like old-school conservative guy who basically warned me against, you know, working with any Green Party people, but I'll tell you what.
Sometimes the Green Party folks are the best people that I can find especially comparison to the mainstream Republicans and Democrats on issues like spying and war.
I don't agree with him on economic issues, but I certainly can create that coalition and work to get something done and even sometimes on environmental issues.
I met a Green Party guy at a Ron Paul barbecue once it was all about civil lawsuits instead of regulation, you know much more libertarian take on enforcing restrictions against pollution.
So I'm sorry.
We're out of time.
You're great.
Your organization is great.
Tenth Amendment Center.com Michael Bolden everybody.
Thanks Scott.
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