As I noted in the Joe the Plumber article, the Right plays a deft ongoing game with federal vs. local control. Basically, if they feel they have the votes to dominate in the national arena, or if they see some other grand political agenda they can push forward, they have no hesitation at saying, “There oughta be a law!” and asking Congress and the President to approve same.
If, on the other hand, the national stage is lost, then suddenly “states rights!” becomes the rallying cry. We hear about the federal experiment, about local control and consideration and representation. Imposing something from “above” violates the spirit of the Constitution and the heritage of this great nation.
So, for example, if the Right can pass an anti-abortion law in Congress, that’s what they’ll do. If they can’t — well, then, they insist that a law allowing abortion nationally is inappropriate and improper and “just not done,” and that the states should be allowed to chart their own course, follow their own wills, and do their own thing. Cue “Dixie.”
We see this in two other areas — gay rights and Washington, DC — and the two are suddenly overlapping.
The gay rights thing is the same as the abortion debate. While the Right felt Congress was all on their side, then a federal “Defense of Marriage Act” was the way to go. Now that the tide has turned, it’s all about keeping DOMA from being rolled back so that the Constitution might “impose” gay marriage on the nation, while fighting a furious battle in as many states as they can. When it looks like the states are getting out of hand, then there’s a debate on the national level; when it looks like the national level may be lost, the debate become all about state’s rights. Or, at least, the rights of “right-thinking” states.
Washington, DC, is an odd bird, a federal district micro-managed in so many ways by the Federal Government. One would think that the states-rights neo-libertarians of the Right would be all over the idea of self-governance, but DC’s liberal/urban/(((black))) image means that anything that smacks of self-representation, let alone DC having its own members of Congress, has hit furious partisan pushback, regardless of the principles involved.
If DC passed a law “defending traditional marriage,” then the Right would be all over supporting that local representation as “the word of the People.” Instead, DC passed a law saying that they would recognize gay marriages in other states. And the Right is having conniptions, insisting that Congress review the law and, if not repeal it, then at least force the politicians to go on the record about it one way or another. “Local control” and “word of the People” be damned.
So I just got an email from the American Family Association, Don Wildmon’s group:
The District of Columbia Council has voted 12-1 to recognize homosexual “marriages” from states where homosexual marriage is now legal – Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont and Connecticut.
The bill now goes to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate for their approval. If approved by both, it will then go to the president for his signature. If Congress does not act on the bill by June 6, it automatically becomes law.
It appears that Democrats will not allow a vote on the bill. By doing this, they will keep their members from having to go on record as being for or against recognition of homosexual marriage. All Democratic members of Congress can then go back to their districts and tell their constituents that they would have voted against the bill if they had been allowed to vote.
Etc., etc., write your Congressman, please send money …
Accountability is fine — but it also seems the American “Family” Association (hey, if they can put “marriage” in scare quotes I can put “family” in them) is more interested in playing political games than supporting local representation, and in perpetuating “Nanny State” congressional control over DC affairs through an unnecessary vote solely to score some political points.