Democrats as State’s Rights Advocates?
Now that the Center-Right control two branches of the federal government and are closing in on the judiciary, those who believe in liberal values more than ever need to work from a state’s rights perspective in order to maintain civil liberties. A woman’s right to choice, a person’s right to pick a partner regardless of gender, and the environment hang in the balance.
A tick under 50% of the country holds these values important, but unfortunately the distribution of the majority is spread such that even in relatively liberal areas conservative voices represent them in the Congress.
What does this mean? While the Federal was instrumental in pushing forward Civil Rights and environmental safeguards in the past, it can be equally effective on reversing these progressive trends.
The problem lies in inertia. Those who like “The Way It Is” have intertia on their side, and especially for the civil rights movement, it took a national effort along with the aid of the Federal government to change “The Way It Is.” Without the federal government on our side it is going to take a lot more push from the state level.
UPDATE: This guy speaks to this from a different angle, from view that big government is inherently evil. To this I say: in the end, state and federal government are just tools, and we need to use them effectively. Only the evil are inherently evil.