E tenebras, lux dormiens

baltimoresun.com - Parties shifting on rights of states

Hot Dog! So fighting for state's rights may now be becoming a sign of liberal policies! It does seem inconsistent, but I'm all for it to defeat Bush for his environmental intransigence.

The only reason state's rights became a conservative policy was because of the Civil Rights' movement, which I won't try to dog because I'm one of those generations that benefit from the act of desegregation.

Now, of course, the government isn't doing too well.

Policies that I support most highly:
1. Environment (each state would innovate its own policy of protecting the environment, which in turn, could be adopted by the federal government. Of course, I would want Texas to save the environment, but that isn't likely since it's a conservative state. Well, the best thing about the United States is that the 10th Amendment gives each state its rights not defined by the Constitution, so one state at a time, one step at a time, it's all a "grassroot effort," which both the Democrats and the Republicans have forgotten about. Except for Howard Dean!)
2. Gambling (if regulated by the states, and done carefully. I don't support propositions, but I would rather have government officials create agencies that decide things for themselves, away from the political bickering and pressure of the public.)
3. Euthanasia (mercy killing, usually in case of terminal and painful illness)
4. Lowering drinking age to 18. (Parents should take responsibilities for making sure their children don't DUI, rather than, say, deferring to the state. As well as educating the teenagers on DUI. It's also important that we don't treat teenagers like criminals or children, but as adults and thus, remind them of their responsibilities as citizens of America. Last resort, raise driving age, which should lower the environmental pollution and increase usage of public transportation.)
5. Lowering age of consent to 16. (With education on STD and pregnancy issue, and with trust in their abilities to take care of themselves. Abortion should not be made available, and decided on a case by case basis with a mediator or an authorized arbitrator, NOT a court judge! Parents should be involved in this as well.)
6. State's creation of a separate mediator/arbitrator officiality to handle cases and streamline the judicial system. (From what I see, the judicial system is clogged with litigations, which are not worthy of the judge's time. A mediator to resolve conflict without the court's win-lose mentality is necessary.)
7. Lowering the federal income tax and cutting "big government" to give the state's more responsibility to raise income tax and sales tax, which could in turn lower "pork-barrel spending" by Congress officials. (This means that if a state wants to have something only a federal government could supply, it will have to get the money itself through raising its own tax than to depend on the federal government.)
8. Universal state-run health care. (This would be the precursor to a universal health care like those provided in Canada or Europe. If not, then each state would have its own responsibility, but should not be told by the federal government what to do.)
9. Legalization of marijuana medicinal use. (maybe city by city, citizen by citizen, not state by state)
10. Allow each state to educate its children. (I understand that conservative state might educate its children "wrongly," such as not teaching evolution in biology for example, but to prevent that shouldn't require the federal government. If only there were businessmen who could industrialize and revolutionize those southern states . . . The problem comes from the fact that the industrial revolution, which brought the western and eastern states to such prosperity as well as Canada and some parts of Western Europe, simply passed the southern states and every other countries by.)