The past is gone: Why liberals should rethink states' rights
From the piece:
America's fraught relationship with federalism is evident in the fact that it's nearly impossible to see the phrase "states' rights" without thinking of slavery, Jim Crow, and the ideology of white supremacy. For decades, "states' rights advocates" invoked the vertical separation of powers to help them subjugate blacks. Post-WWII icons of the right like William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater never erred more seriously than when they opposed federal intervention to safeguard the equality of black Americans, as if preserving federalism as a constitutional mechanism to protect liberty mattered more than liberty itself. Liberals justifiably criticize those men for their blindness -- their failure to discern that Jim Crow was an unmitigated scourge, so unjust that extraordinary steps to end it were not only justified, but incumbent upon any nation of liberty-loving people.
Isn't there evidence for that notion in current events?
