John McCain is developing a bad case of selective respect. For the Constitution, that is.
Recently, he called upon the principle of States Rights in advocating drilling for oil off the coasts of California and Florida.
But, isn’t he violating this principle at the same time he’s invoking it?
Debra J. Saunders made a good point in the SF Chronicle:
Why does McCain believe in states’ rights for Californians and Floridians, but not Alaskans, who support drilling in ANWR? I asked Holtz-Eakin. His answer: Some places are simply too “special.”
And, some places just don’t have the votes to make much of a difference – so why pander to them, right?
The important point here is that McCain, once again, isn’t talking about States’ Rights at all. He’s talking about power. More power for the federal government, and more power for him.
What?
Well, it’s quite simple. McCain isn’t calling for the States to have a right to make their own environmental regulation at all. He just sees a political reality – that prices for gas are high – and he’s working to exploit that for votes.
His plan is all about “Washington offering financial incentives to get coastal states to agree to new offshore exploration.”
Think about that for just a moment.
What McCain calls “states rights” is, in fact, just the opposite. He’s advocating taking money from some states, and giving it to others. Or, more practically, he’s going to take your tax money, and give it to some huge corporation to do business in California and Florida.
That’s not even close to being states rights.
Taking money from one group and giving to another. If he weren’t a politician, wouldn’t we say that he was advocating stealing?
A States Rights/10th Amendment viewpoint would be much different. Each state could determine the policies that were best for their own areas…and would be held responsible for the outcome of their action(s).
This does not mean that they’d suddenly be entitled to your money, or the money of people in any other state.
Once again, McCain clearly misses the point, and is only pandering for more votes and more power.