States' Rights are Bullshit

Many Americans, particularly in the South, are quite found of the concept of “states’ rights.” For those living under unitary systems who are unfamiliar with the American federal system, here goes a quick bit of background. During the American Revolt, the various colonies tried to unite into a something like single political entity. With each colony having been accustomed to governing itself, many were reluctant to give up their local power to a higher level of government. After much debate, the 10th Amendment was added to clarify the relationship between the federal, or higher-level government, and the governments of the new 13 states. It says that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The concept makes sense in that different geographic regions will likely have different needs unique to the area and that legislative bodies within those regions would be best able to enact measure to handle those needs. It also means that the federal government does not always have to waste time micromanaging the various regions in the country. However, traditionally the 10th Amendment has served as an umbrella to all sorts of crazy state laws and state constitutional amendments that violate basic human rights. It has been used to try to do things like preserve slavery, protect institutional racism, avoid environmental protection regulations, and persecute homosexuals. To allow state legislatures free reign over broad, sweeping issues concerning basic human rights is to allow for the creation of a patchwork nation where some states violate human rights while others preserve them. While traveling across the nation, a racial minority may find that he suddenly isn’t granted equal protection under the law or a gay couple may find their marriage vows invalidated upon moving to a new state. While the federal government can get things wrong as well (such as in the case of many drug laws), the power of the state legislatures should be limited to the realm of fishing licenses and parking tickets, not fundamental human rights. A woman’s right over her own body or racial equality shouldn’t be concepts inimical to humanity everywhere in the universe except in Mississippi. Yet, as shown by the recent passage of several state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, the danger still exists for crackpot bigots and religious extremists to use the 10th Amendment to impose their own disgusting value systems on others. If they cannot control the nation, they at least want to control their little racist fiefdom.

Ultimately (and here’s where I go off on a tangent, spouting off about radical idealistic utopias), the entire would should be governed by something like the federal system. Currently existing national governments should become something analogous to our state governments (and perhaps a few large countries should be broken up into several smaller oblasts or perhaps geographic regions), handling matters of local significance, but never being allowed to violate the principles of human equality and basic human rights we’ve so slowly and painfully come to recognize.