Some may call this states’ rights, others refer to it as decentralization or federalism.  Whatever you call it, it’s a system of government where politicians in Washington D.C. wouldn’t have the power to dictate to you how to live your life.

Period.

On his “Suscepit” blog, Steve Austin’s got a pretty good idea on a way to move forward towards these ideals – he calls it the “Tenth Amendment Request“  Here’s a little of what he has to say:

Today I start a new feature on this ever-expanding, ever-so-vital link to reality. To be called “Today’s Tenth Amendment request,” it will be in the form of a request on behalf of what may be our firmest relationship to Federalism and the ideas that formed this country, the Tenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

This request will be for a change from the horrors visited upon the Constitutional system since the elite of our nation found their solution to the temporary economic downturn of the late 1920′s, which was unmitigated governmental power, control, and interference in the lives of ordinary Americans.

This seems to be a great idea – going, one by one, through all the unconstitutional activities of the federal government.  It’s a long haul, but when people think that Congress has the power, for example, to transfer it’s own authority to the President – there’s a lot of educating that needs to be done in this country.

And, as Thomas Jefferson once said, education is best way to correct Constitutional abuses:

“I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

Steve’s first lesson?  The endangered species act:

What happens to wild animals was never planned to become a part of the federal government, but is of course one of the great majority of matters the Constitution demands be left to each state to decide.

Exactly.  Local solutions allow more ideas to be tried – and such an increase in “competition” will only improve the outcome.  On top of that, when you have one solution imposed on the whole nation, there’s no way to escape mandates that are negative – or even tyrannical.

It’s a good first lesson.  Hopefully Steve will continue this daunting task.