•3:32 PM
One of the common themes I often hear when discussing our oversized and bloated federal government is "State's Rights." That theme almost kept us from becoming the United States and almost broke our Union during the Civil War. It was the battle cry of the South in the "War Against Northern Aggression" or the "War for State's Rights." It is the battle cry of many even today - especially among the very conservative. I do not fault them for that belief. However, they should think twice about ever promoting such a thing. I plainly state that there never has been and never will be such a preposterous thing as "State's Rights" and you and I should stand against any such claim.
There are only Human Rights - your rights and my rights. The State of Connecticut has no rights. The state of Utah has no rights. The United States have no rights. Only the People have rights and we should never promote any non-person being somehow given rights.
These rights are unalienable and cannot be conferred or denied. The chief of these rights is the right to Life - all others mean nothing without that. A person may forfeit those rights by their actions and oppressive government may deny them but the people have them and governments and laws are instituted for the one sole purpose of protecting and preserving those rights. That is the role of government in a nutshell: to preserve your rights.
There is nothing sacred about a democracy that denies rights. I would rather live under a virtuous king that preserves his people's rights than a Republic that denies them. The form is not the important piece - whether it is a democracy, republic, monarchy, or theocracy. The important thing is whether the citizen's rights are preserved and protected. We should work more and more to not shore up states rights at both the federal and state level but to shore up human rights. When a state's interest supersedes a human right we should work for its eventual annulment and for the right of man to triumph.
