The fragmented states of America and the fear of government

Apparently, we are forgetful of our history. In case you haven't been keeping score the last 150 years, we've had the states' rights vs. national government fight on a large scale twice. The first time it was called the Civil War. Contrary to what you may have heard the Civil War wasn't actually about states' rights but about slavery, or rather about a state's right to own slaves even if the federal government said no. Five years and over 600,000 Americans lives later, we settled the issue. Slavery was gone. Score one for the good guys. Of course, the states were down, but not out so they instituted Jim Crow laws and legalized segregation and so 100 years after they lost the first round, the states squared off with the national government again. History repeats itself and for the good of the country and the cause of what is right and good the national government won again and segregation ended.

It's interesting, then, that the states are at it again, and again, they've picked the wrong cause. Individual states are flexing their muscles at the federal government in an attempt to prevent said government from providing health care to millions of uninsured people while simultaneously lowering the cost for almost everyone and still saving money.

If it seems overwhelming that the states could choose the wrong side three times in a row and still be considered legitimate, that's because it is. The first two times, most people around the country rallied around the national government - the members of which were not scared to do what was best for the common good - and change was enacted. While states supported slavery and segregation, the good guy stepped in and good rid of both. You may be able to find a few people who think that federal intervention was bad; we call those people idiots and they are fewer and further between.

Perhaps then, the third time will be the charm. Perhaps the Tea Partiers and the other lunatics out there standing in the way of progress will realize the error of their ways and side with the country rather than with their states. This is, after all, the United States of America, not the Fragmented States of America.

Now don't get me wrong, the states' rights people aren't completely crazy. There is a strict, totally unambiguous constitutional amendment - the 10th - that grants states the rights to determine all laws not granted to the federal government. That completely uninterpretable amendment reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Of course, states' rights advocates are simply acting in the best interest of the people. For example, Alabama, Tennessee and Washington are considering amendments that would give state police authority over federal groups like the FBI. Imagine the guys from Super Troopers trying to solve a real crime. Then imagine what it would be like for the state police of Alabama to pull rank on the FBI. Scary isn't it?

It gets better, or worse - I'm never sure which - In Vermont, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, three liberal states, the state governments are trying to take control of the National Guard. That's right, the NATIONAL Guard. What would the government of Vermont even do with the National Guard? Disband it? Use it to crack down on post-hurricane looting? Stop Johnny Chimpo from smuggling marijuana across the border from Canada?

Fortunately, this battle, like the last two prominent ones that states' rights activists have fought, will be won by the good guys. States' rights defenders love the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution but they've forgotten the actual Sixth Article which declares that federal law is supreme to state law.

Hopefully when the economy recovers and the Tea Partiers get their jobs back they will go home and fade into history as a movement that inspired Joe Stack, the terrorist who bombed the IRS. Until then, we have to fight these people tooth and nail.

I don't think the federal government should run our lives and if they were trying to, I'd be scared. But we're talking about 31 million Americans without health care, countless more who pay way too much and a system that costs way too much to run and needs to be overhauled. We elect these people to make life better for us and that's what they are trying to do. Remember, this is the UNITED States of America and if we want it to stay that way we have to let our government officials do their job. Americans want health care reform and we need health care reform. Let's unite behind our government rather than in opposition to it. If we stand united, we get better. History has proven it twice. Let's make it happen again.