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Notes -
Much like free speech is the antecedent to all other freedoms... But those positions are held honestly by all two dozen of us principled libertarians, and semi honestly and inconstantly by a huge number of people who just use the argument as a soldier to benefit their tribe.
How else do you explain the gay marriage flip, which was largely made by literally the same Congressional leadership (Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, McConnell)? Republicans were happy to push a national ban on gay marriage until that became impractical, Democrats fought a national resolution on the issue until one in favor of their position became possible. That doesn't look like either actually existing political coalition having a real position on states rights.
Why would you expect anyone to? The whole point of the Madisonian checks-and-balances system is channeling inconstant, selfish, and transient political interests in ways that minimize the harm they can cause to the public good. "If men were angels, no government would be necessary," and all that. In fact, the system breaks down most prominently when one or another entity within its design stops playing hardball and trying to grab as much power for itself as it can (i.e., the administrative state and imperial presidency only exist because Congress has been steadily neutering itself for the past 100 years, and we neutered the states through the Reconstruction Amendments and the direct election of senators).
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