Speaking at a rally for Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli on Monday, former congressman and libertarian darling Ron Paul claimed to see "nullification" of federal law by the states in the near future.
According to Politico, Paul told a crowd of Cuccinelli supporters that "I’ve been working on the assumption that nullification is going to come. It’s going to be a de facto nullification. It’s ugly, but pretty soon things are going to get so bad that we’re just going to ignore the feds and live our own lives in our own states."
Beyond promoting nullification, the 19th century doctrine, popular in the antebellum South, which held that states had the right to invalidate any federal law they deem unconstitutional, Paul urged Cuccinelli's followers to "stand up to the authoritarians."
"They're dictators," Paul said.
Paul also railed against Obamacare, calling its funding mechanisms "evil" and arguing they'll "create class warfare, generational warfare."
Cuccinelli brought Paul in to limit the bleeding of support to Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis, who has pulled double digits in some polls and threatens to be a spoiler Tuesday.
Paul, who won 40.5 percent in a two-way Virginia Republican primary against Mitt Romney last year, did not mention Sarvis by name, but he attacked him for floating a tax on the number of miles a car drives.
“That’s insane,” said Paul. “What kind of an invasion of privacy is that! Ken is quite correct on the tax issue: no new taxes.”
Paul said Cuccinelli has established a reputation for being unyielding, “where you know he’s not gonna back down.”
“I don’t know whether Ken calls himself a libertarian or not,” he added, “but I know he’s a constitutionalist.”
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