Devolution in more ways than one
by digby
In our brave new states' rights dominant country,there will be many places where things like this will be common:
Three Indiana state senators, all Republicans, have introduced a bill that would allow schools to require the recitation of the Lord's Prayer every morning, if they want to.
The Lord's Prayer bill says the point is to help "each student recognize the importance of spiritual development in establishing character and becoming a good citizen," but you can get out of reciting it if you or your parents want.
Well that's good. Little first graders whose parents don't want them to say it will have a fine time in school, I'm sure. But then that's the price they have to pay for being heathens.
It was a big liberal win for the federal courts to uphold the concept of secular public schools nationwide and end this practice. Those who want to institutionalize religion in civic functions have never gotten over it. Interestingly, the battle started in the states, as these things often do. But states aren't actually sacred boundaries embedded in the sacred constitution which must be respected above the federal government. They are just a relic of British colonial rule and a bunch of compromises with landowning aristocrats centuries ago. In fact, their fake "sovereign" status makes this nation more unequal and nearly ungovernable.
From a liberal perspective, states play one useful role in our national life. They are where the first challenges to prevailing norms of privilege and discrimination are often waged --- but with the goal of eventually applying these rights and liberties to the nation at large. Devolving to the states, as the conservatives and libertarians insist we should do, does the opposite. If states didn't exist, it would likely be easier to challenge prevailing norms --- because "sovereignty" wouldn't be spread out among 50 entities plus the federal government.
There's danger in large tyrannies to be sure. There's also danger in medium and small tyrannies. And frankly I'm not sure which is worse. Judging by the endless arguments over garbage cans and parking spaces, if my neighbors were allowed to make decisions about my rights and freedoms I have a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn't be as free as I am today. Tyranny is tyranny.
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