Gingrich Pushes States' Rights

No matter how much time has passed, media outlets will still argue that "states' rights" is code for racism, Jim Crow, and segregation.

Ironically, when segregation was enforced at the local level, community activists faced fewer hardships combating the hateful practice. Apart from leaving the area entirely, individuals who marched against Jim Crow enforced bus and market boycotts, which effected necessary change, punishing discriminatory businesses by hurting their profit margins.

The states have a distinct interest in how the federal government works, which federal laws have kept in check with Civil Rights legislation. Despite the diminution of their power because of the populist Seventeenth Amendment, the states can rely on federalism to borrow creative ideas from states and create a legal culture more enticing to citizens looking for a respite from the state. Today, as Americans have acquired a greater ease with mobility and transfer, individuals and corporations can shop around more easily, and more frequently, for states with more tolerable economic and cultural climes. Governor Rick Perry of Texas, for example, has taken advantage of federalism to woo struggling companies from regulation-heavy California to Texas, where residents enjoy not having to pay a state income tax, where new businesses can thrive under less regulation and intervention from the state.

Instead of fearing the rise of racist legislation, Americans should recognize that the competition of states, bolstered by a Constitutional federal government that honors the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the Constitution, would improve the lot of all Americans, punishing by force of free market competition those states which have allowed welfare and domestic warfare to challenge and impede the growth of free enterprise and the scope of individual liberty.

Of all the GOP presidential candidates still running, Newt Gingrich has demonstrated the most vocal and visible penchant for restoring and respecting the rights of the states. Perhaps this affiliation with state sovereignty, along with the former House Speaker's Southern upbringing, convinced the Texas Governor to endorse Gingrich early in the primary season. Even if the former Congressman does not win the nomination, hopefully his advocacy for state sovereignty, especially in the shadow of looming, dooming federal government, will encourage enough voters to push for more autonomy throughout the union from centralized authority.