QOTD

[unixronin]

"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones.  I wish, therefore ... never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market."

— Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Judge William Johnson, 12 June 1823

And how right he was....

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

But I wonder if Jefferson would say that after looking at today's state governments.

Yeah, I think these days the rot is ingrained at all levels.

When I was growing up, "states' rights" -- what Jefferson was arguing for here -- was code for "let us keep violating colored citizens' civil rights."

Indeed, that's the other side of the coin. Though this is a problem that I think is solvable simply by saying, "When you became a state of the Union, you agreed to honor the Constitution — ALL of it — as the supreme law of the land. Do so." None of this shit about states picking and choosing which parts of the Constitution they feel like honoring. It's a mandate, not an à-la-carte menu. You follow it as written, or you pack up and ship out.