Marty

On most “social issues,” let the States deal with them…Abortion may be a special case…Even there, reversing Roe v Wade would not end legal abortion, it would just put the issue back in the States, where it belongs.

Agreed, but abortion is a special case not just because of the contentious* debates about whether it’s murder or not, but also because of Roe v. Wade. It’s the highest profile social issue with an official declaration** about what the Constitution says on the subject.

The biggest problem though in pushing a federalism program (which I support 110%) is the necessary definition of what rights the Constituion grants every American citizen regardless of what State they are in. Even the easy ones are hard – how much experimentation can states do with gun control, for instance? And we will always have slavery thrown up in our faces, with a sneering “Well, that was a States Rights issue too!” for which the Conferderacy should be eternally dammed.

Still, it’s the right path to take, and even if it’s a hard road the destination is worth it. We’ve been trying to take shortcuts for a while, and none have led anywhere but dead-ends.

* – I’m certainly convinced abortion is one of the most selfish and immoral things a mother could do, but the country as a whole is not so sure, a fact that is quite sad but one we need to face. Regardless of the moral issues, so long as a significant number of women think abortion is a necessary option to preserve their privacy freedom from responsibility, any attempts to outlaw it will be disastrous. This is an issue that will take years of work to undo, and that work will need to be done in the civic sphere. Convincing young women that abortion is immoral is far more important than convincing old men it ought to be illegal.

** – an incorrect, unsubstantiated, full-of-baloney, morally dubious and legally fraudulent definition, granted, but Law-o-the-land level for the time being none the less. This one is a scar we are going to have to live with for a while.