[image source: https://judicature.duke.edu/articles/foundations-of-u-s-federalism/]
Reflection Paper
Ok, so first, all of this is based on the constitution and the federalist papers and the founding fathers. This is back when we were 1) still working on becoming a country and 2) were 13 states. 10th amendment → powers not given to the federal government go to the states. General Welfare Clause, Commerce Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause. “Laboratories of Democracy” → A single courageous state could run experiments without harming the whole country. “Let us of the 75th congress declare that we would rather have an independent court than a court, out of fear, we are not the judges of the judges.
Josh Hammer gave a very interesting talk about federalism and what he believes to be the best way to solve the disunity within this country. However, I disagree completely with just about everything he said. The biggest being his stance on returning to a stronger division and independence of individual states. His take the red states should do their thing and that blue states should do theirs is a disillusionment of a stance and completely ignores the problems and issues that come with that ideology, hence why we have come such a long way from the foundational government that was started when the United States was made of only 13, geographically immediate states.
First, him basing his argument off of something James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers and on the Constitution is a bit of a joke. I understand where he is coming from but the fact of the matter is that many of the nuances created by the Constitution cannot apply to the modern United States. It would be absurd. It’s old language that applies to, again 13 states, and issues that were apparent during their times. Those issues are no longer prevalent and we have evolved to a place where some of the problems we face were never even considered by the founders. They were not omniscient. To ignore the growth of this country and assume the exact same system that worked in the 1800s would work today is naive and ignorant. Hammer even admits that he does not know how we could do so, but the idea that we should start reverting is ridiculous. He talks about weed in relation to federalism but let's talk about high stakes. Let’s talk about marriage equality. Same-sex marriage is not mentioned within the constitution, so by his train of thought, it would mean that it would be up to the states to make that decision for themselves. Now, I go into the morality of it all and the secular issues with banning same-sex marriage, but instead I will simply talk logistics. So, if a couple were to get married in a “pro” state and then move to an “anti” state, would there marriage license just not be recognized by that state? How would that affect their taxes, health insurance, etc? They still pay federal taxes but how would that look if they aren’t legally recognized by the state they were residing in. Or, what about people that are simply passing through a state to reach another, would the laws of the state they were currently in apply to those even if they belong to another state? Would it work similarly to American citizens in international affairs? The federal government creating regulations that are not spoken of within the constitution (including weed) should be considered more of an updating of the constitution, not overstepping boundaries. Along the lines of marriage equality, what about interacial marriages? What about the stances on same-sex couples adopting kids. There are so many issues that should be decided by the federal government that would have never crossed the minds of the founding fathers (who kept it vague on purpose! Because they knew that they didn’t know everything!), especially considering they were living in a time where slavery was still legal and socially acceptable. Also, his take on red states competing with red states doesn’t take into account the fact that the U.S. states depend and interact with each other regardless of ideological differences. Red states and blue states are located next to each other. Blues states need trade from Red just like Red needs from blue.