Crisis Magazine recently published a piece by Stephen M. Krason which argues for an even stronger executive branch to undo the damage done by the left to our culture post-Obama. They also published my reply this morning, in which I argued for a more Jeffersonian approach. Check it out!
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.” From Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptist Church.
.
Thomas Jefferson placed his “wall of separation of church and state” after “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,”…the First Amendment.
.
“Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience”.
.
“…the supreme will of the nation was recorded “in behalf of the rights of conscience”. This criminalizes the HHS Mandate.
.
“I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
.
The freedom to be American, “his social duties” and the freedom to be Catholic, “his natural right(s)” are not “in opposition”.
Many people wrongly assume that “state’s rights” were nothing more than a code word or cover for Southern attempts to preserve slavery (in the 19th century) and racial segregation (in the 20th century). However, “state’s rights” cut both ways in the antebellum era — for example, several Northern states passed personal liberty laws protecting escaped slaves from being recaptured, in direct defiance of the federal Fugitive Slave Act.
One area in which states are currently exercising their rights in opposition to or defiance of the federal government is marijuana legalization; 20 states now allow its medical use and 2 (Colorado and Washington) have completely legalized it, despite the fact that it’s still illegal at the federal level. However, the feds just recently relaxed restrictions that prevented banks from handling marijuana-related monetary transactions (a restriction that had created huge and potentially dangerous problems for state-legalized dispensaries and cultivation centers). So states can say “no” to Uncle Sam and live to tell about it, even today.