State's Rights

One of the strongly discussed topics this election year is state's rights. The main reason this is an issue is because many people feel like the federal government has too much control, and is making laws for the entire country that should be handled by local governments. I agree, state's rights are important and they there should be more emphasis on making laws at the state level.

Think about the geography of Europe. There are many countries that are as big as only one state in America! Some of the bigger countries like Spain and France only encompass a few American states in landmass. Think about how different their cultures are. Italians are distinctly different than the British or the Germans. It is the same in America, southerners are different from those in New England who are different from those in the midwest, the west coast, etc. We all have different opinions and ways of life, and generally we think most alike the people around us. So if people in Tennessee don't see an issue the same way as the folks in Colorado do, then should they be able to make their own laws rather than having the federal government blanket all the states with the same law?

When the United States of America was founded over 200 years ago the idea of 'united states' was a loose affiliation with open borders that could unite for militaristic defense. Somehow over the years we have twisted the ideas and the model our founding fathers laid out for us, and we now put tremendous importance on the federal government. America needs to regroup itself and go back to making laws at the state level instead of the federal level.

Take the issue of abortion. In 1973 the supreme court decided that it was unlawful for the practice to be illegal...this was a federal decision. I'm just throwing these numbers out to use as an example, but say that Oregon is 65% pro-choice and Texas is 35% pro-choice. So there are more people in Texas that are against abortion but they have to allow for it to be legal. It shouldn't be this way, Oregon should be able to make it legal and Texas should be able to make it illegal. The same goes for gay marriage, gun control, healthcare, capital punishment, education, cap and trade, or any law that has to do with the well-being of the people.

Our federal government should not be involved in our everyday activities, that is what our local government is for. The feds need to be making laws for tariffs, military budget, foreign affairs, allocating funds, statutory laws that need to be implemented as part of being an American citizen, or any other law that involves the welfare of the entire country and is much less focused on the individual.

State's rights are very important. America is a vast land with many different kinds of people who have different views and ideas for how things should be run. There's no reason for everyone to fall because we're all tied to the same boat with the federal government, when we could have passed laws locally with our own interest in mind. What's the point of state lines if we're going to let the federal government handle everything.

JB