The Gamut

Yesterday, I commented that state's should have the rght to decide their own marriage laws. I noted that it is a tradition that states be given the right to act individually in the interest of their citizens. But there is another, more pragmatic reason that I failed to note.

State's are often on the cutting edge of creative social advance. For example, the midnight basketball program started as a local program someplace. Vermont is testing the workability of civil unions. The community of San Fransisco is testing the bounds even more.

If we delegate all decision making to the federal government, we all lose. If we had deferred to the federal authority in the mid-nineteenth century, it is very possible that they would have declared slavery legal in all US States. This would have effectively quelshed any movement for abolition, and slavery would still be legal today.