On the subject of abortion, or "reproductive rights", or whatever...

It's interesting to me how exercised people get over abortion.  Not because it isn't an issue deserving of passion and intensity, but because of how well it illustrates the brilliance of our political system... and how desperately both sides of the issue struggle to pervert that brilliance.

You see, the true believers are certain that human life begins at conception, or that until the moment of live birth pregnancy is just an infection with a parasitic clump of cells. How can we reconcile these views--that abortion is necessarily murder, and that without abortion women are slaves?

The point is, we can't reconcile them.  These views are fundamentally incompatible.

So... what then do we do?  Do we allow routine murder or enslave half the population?  Well, if we listen the rabid foot soldiers of the pro-this or pro-that armies, we MUST absolutely adopt one position or the other, and simply dictate to those who don't agree with us.

But this is a ridiculous perversion of our nation! There is no way we must absolutely dictate our position to those who disagree. We have a solution to this problem at our fingertips!  It's called federalism.

You see, the world is full of unknowable, unanswerable questions and judgments.  We are all different, and all reach different conclusions.  But our system of government has been intentionally designed to accommodate this! Under our system, only the most broadly agreed policies are to be enacted at the federal level.  For any policy so enacted dictates to all citizens, and there is no recourse but submission to any that disagree.  In contrast, more controversial or less agreed issues should be handled by the states, or even local communities.  In this way, those that agree can establish their governments as they see fit, and not impinge on those who disagree!

Even democratically enacted policies (which the current Federal policy on abortion is not) are subject to the "tyranny of the masses" flaw--that democracy allows 50.1% of the population to dictate to the other 49.9%.  Hence the fundamental importance of federalism in enabling democracy.  Remember that at the time of the founding, no human democracy had ever succeeded.  It is the combination of representative government and federalism with democracy that make democratic government viable. Why have we forgotten this?  Why do the zealots of the abortion debate so often reject this?

The federal government should have no say in the legality or illegality of abortion.  There is no way that we can broadly agree on this issue.  It must be left to the states and local governments.

...And why shouldn't it be?  Why would it be wrong for abortion to be legal some places and not others?  The only argument I can come up with is that if state's made it illegal to cross state lines to get an abortion.  But this is clearly wrong, and clearly unconstitutional, no matter what the history of the issue is.  Interstate commerce, which surely includes services, can not be controlled by the states.

It is so simple.  Allow federalism to do what it was designed to do... allow us to live together though we fundamentally disagree!

Now, of course, we come to the election of the moment.  And here, we all know, the supporters of Barack Obama have been vehemently, desperately painting Mitt Romney as "anti-woman"... why?  Because he personally opposes abortion, and politically believes.... what?...

Quoting directly from Romney's campaign website:

Mitt believes that life begins at conception and wishes that the laws of our nation reflected that view. But while the nation remains so divided, he believes that the right next step is for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade – a case of blatant judicial activism that took a decision that should be left to the people and placed it in the hands of unelected judges. With Roe overturned, states will be empowered through the democratic process to determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.

There it is... federalism!

Mitt Romney does not want to dictate abortion policy to you.  He simply wants to empower you and your neighbors to decide for yourselves.  This is freedom.  Yes, some places will likely outlaw abortion.  But we are clearly a divided nation, and many places will not.

Do not succumb to the irrational and wasted anger of the true zealots.  You may firmly believe that legal abortion is murder, or that making abortion illegal is enslavement of women, but do you also believe you have the right to dictate your moral views to the entire nation?  Return power over this controversial issue to where it belongs:  the states and local communities.

Not only is the whole abortion debate completely inappropriate at the federal level, but to attack Mitt Romney for living the essence of our federal democracy--by holding strong personal beliefs, but acknowledging the primacy of democratic self-government--is ridiculous.