What is States’ Rights?
A very wise man, one for whom I have great respect, recently issued what seemed to be a challenge, “Was all y’all’s talk about states’ rights just whiskey talk, or do y’all really believe it?” Then he followed with, “If you do really believe it, then get liquored up and write an article!”
So this POOR (Plain Ole Ordinary Redneck) mountain moron got to thinking about that. In my younger years it has been rumored by some that I got liquored up once or twice, but I can’t remember a thing about it. Some said that was the effect of the liquor. Now that I am kind of the opposite of a youngun, I can’t remember getting liquored up at all. Some say that isn’t the effect of liquor. Life is like that at times — what was isn’t, and what is wasn’t.
Of course, English majors will just go berserk over that last sentence; but it does apply to a discussion of States’ Rights in the year A.D. 2010, even if it is some of the poorest English grammar of the year. What was State’s Rights isn’t what it is today. What is States’ Rights today isn’t what it was.
To begin, I will put on my virtually unused and in brand new condition English grammar hat and point out that the apostrophe is in the wrong place. It should be State’s, not States.’ And the word Rights should be Powers.
Why States’ vs. State’s? In the founding concept of American liberty, the primary purpose of government is to guarantee the rights of the people, which are derived from God. To accomplish this primary function of government, the power to govern was divided between a person’s State and The (several) States as a group (or the central government). States’ is the plural possessive. It references The States as a group and is thus the same as saying Federal Rights. So you could argue that people today who speak of States’ Rights have lost part of the basic concept before they even get started.
Why Rights vs. Powers? The second word of the phrase is also misused. Rights are given to the people by God, not to their State, a group of States, or to a central government. States do not have rights; they have powers to govern that have been granted by the sovereign people. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the concept of American liberty. Government at every level is supposed to execute only those powers for which the people have granted the authority. Any debate that begins with the “Rights” of any government at any level has most likely been lost from the outset. Even if the effort seems to have initial success, in the end it only winds up chipping away at our God-given Rights.
But for the sake of this article let’s just leave the above for consideration, thought, and prayer by the reader. Of those three, prayer should be the most important, giving thanks for the Rights that have been bestowed upon us by our Maker and asking forgiveness for being so complacent in giving His gifts away.
And now… the rest of the story. …..
Harold
