Federalists

The Republicans gave up their "principles" about states rights awhile ago.  The 2000 election decision was the embodiment of allowing politics to sway what any principaled conservative or federalist would have refused to review - the election decision.  And this whole gay marriage Amendment?  A Constitutional Amendment is the epitomy of the national government trumping the rights of the states...but he's got in all in this article.  The bonding with the religious right was a pact with a group that does not come close to sharing the views of a traditional internationalist conservative in the vein of Edmund Burke or Alexander Hamilton and later Barry Goldwater...as the article mentions.

But here's the other thing:

"In reality, he insists, "there are no federalists in this debate."  In his view, liberals are just using the federalism argument as a stalling tactic until they can impose a single national policy—namely, allowing same-sex marriage. He's on to something: Principled opponents of centralized power have never been found on the left, and they are vanishing on the right as well. When it comes to federalism, we are all liberals now."

Principles be damned, it's all about positions.   The scary thing to me about positions is that they are inevitably proved wrong over the course of time.  To ensure we are set up to deal with that eventuality, we have a system, a Federalist system, designed with checks and balances on ALL powers - that of the states, that of the national government, that of the legislature, the president, the judiciary, and yes, of popular opinion...

It's hard to make the structural arguments when it is clear that it's only a tactic to push forward an agenda or a position.  It's as if we're all turning into Johnnie Cochran's trying to out-clever the other side, using the law to push forward our own political beliefs.  How un-democratic!

I find this rhetoric on the left a lot with respect to G W Bush.  They often say, "I didn't vote for him, and I disavow his policy or anything he does...in short, he's not MY president."  Now I didn't vote for Bush either, nor imagine I ever could.  But I'm a Democrat (that's a big D) first and foremost, and being a Democrat means subjugating your own personal opinions for those of the majority.  That's the test of a working democracy - if losers are willing to concede to the winners the right to their opinion.  With respect to the 2000 election, most democrats (small D) are pissed about the outcome, not the process.  If the process had been the same and given Gore the victory, well, it would be the Republican's crying foul.   

But maybe that's just human nature.