Thoughts on Federalism from Fred Thompson
I agree that the federal government has taken too much purview from the states and hope that it starts to swing back the other way real soon.
The federalist construct of strong states and limited federal government put in place by our Founders was intended to give states the freedom to experiment and innovate. It envisions states as laboratories in competition with each other to develop ideas and programs to benefit their people, to see what works and what does not.
This ingenious means of governing a large and diverse nation prevailed for more than a century. But today our Constitution and the limited, federalist government it established, are considered by many to be quaint or out of touch with the world we live in, to be swept aside by political expediency.
The Supreme Court sometimes ignores the written Constitution to reflect its view of the times. So does Congress, which routinely forgets that our checks and balances, the separation of powers and our system of federalism are designed to diffuse power and protect the liberties of our people. Before anything else, folks in Washington ought to be asking first and foremost, “Should government be doing this? And if so, then at what level of government?” But they don’t.
“State Rights” is not a slogan. It is something that is protected and set in the constitution. Protecting “State Rights” is just one of the jobs our senators have not been doing a very good job of.
Let’s make the ‘08 election a revolution and do some house cleaning. I know of two senators (Lugar and Bayh) that have lost their way and purpose in the senate.
Glenn Reynolds has thoughts and more links on the subject.
UPDATE: Hennessy has his thoughts on this as well. Of course it goes without saying, they are better than mine.