Instapundit has it about right. I remember when the civil rights laws were being debated in the 1960's the issues of states' rights and federal police power were being made by conservatives then, not because they were racists, but because they feared the growth and centralization of power in the federal government.


Both sides were right. Something did need to be done, because white Southerners and their politicians were intransigent. On the other hand, the federal government has grown both in personnel and power over states. Much of this was aided by the concept that if the states aren't doing their own jobs "correctly" then the Feds must step in. The Civil Rights movement also gave rise to a large number of activist organizations, most of which have nowhere near the moral authority that Martin Luther King and his associates had. If proved that grassroots movements could overthrow the established order. Now we have PETA and its ilk making nuisances of themselves with disobedience, civil and criminal, and lawsuits. Almost any idea about the way society should be can be made emotionally compelling with the same kinds of arguments which won in the civil rights arena for human beings. And anybody clearthinking enough to see the distinction can readily be denounced as a bigot.


Hard cases make bad law. The Civil Rights laws passed in the 1960s were necessary. But much of what has followed in their wake, such as "affirmative action," was not, and has harmed African Americans by discounting their ability to succeed without a lowered bar.


I write all this because we are now being polarized along a multitude of axes (plural of axis) by activists who have enlisted the liberal establishment for their causes. We should have known that not all differences require federal intervention and resisted the urge to try to undo every supposed injustice with a federal program. I believe that governmental powers should be restricted to the most local level they can be. I also believe that all "gifts" from the government come with strings attached, and we are rapidly becoming puppets.