DFL Party chair Brian Melendez opened his speech to convention delegates by outlining a basic difference between the DFL activists and those from the GOP: They want to secede from the nation. We don't, he said.
Melendez, who had just made quick work of a DFL activist's move to object to the Pledge of Allegiance, said: "I don't know about you but I'm against succession and I'm against nullification. We just pledged allegiance to the flag and I have here my handy pocket constitution to which I pledge even firmer allegiance."
Melendez cited a recent 2nd Congressional District's Republican move from activists for a resolution to support, "the right of states to secede from the union" and a Republican lawmaker's push for a constitutional amendment to "affirm the state's sovereignty and reinforce the intent of the 10th Amendment." The district's resolution failed by two votes; the constitutional amendment proposal still lives.
The party chair led the DFL delegates in a repeated vote against "nullification" to make his point clear.
"We are proud of our state and we are proud of our constitution and we have no desire to part ways....Welcome to the people's convention," Melendez said.
