During the 20th century, political liberals have generally opposed federalism and devolution, preferring Washington, D.C. and the federal judiciary to
impose liberal policies on the entire country, from abortion rights to environmental policy to gun control laws. That’s fine for them when liberals
are in power. But what about when conservatives become firmly entrenched?
In a democracy, where 50 percent plus 1 takes home all the political marbles, there are bound to be people who strongly dislike political outcomes. In
a nation as large as the United States, that means millions and millions of people won’t like the outcome.
There is a way around the disunity problem and it’s a solution the nation’s Founders devised. It’s called federalism — devolving political
decision-making as close to voters as possible, to the states and local municipalities. It’s an old idea, but one that might be rejuvenated in the
wake of this election.
Consider the big blue state, California. A majority of California voters favored John Kerry in this election and Al Gore in the last election. So are
Californians condemned to suffer in Bush’s red America?
Not exactly. Consider the issue of embryonic stem cell research. President Bush is against federal support for the creation of new embryonic stem cell
lines. The president’s position was attacked by Senator Kerry in the campaign. California voters, favoring Kerry’s position, worked around Bush’s ban
on federal funding — by funding it themselves! Voters supported ponying up $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research.
Of course, this is just one example of many. I love federalism.
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