In the abortion issue, for instance, I would take Douglas’s side. The responsibility for punishing the crime of abortion resides entirely with the states, and the national government has no say in it.

In fact, one way you could look at it is that Roe vs. Wade is with Lincoln in its nationalistic view — that the national government should be the governing body for the lives of people.

I think you might appreciate Douglas’s viewpoint a little more if instead of looking at it from a state/national viewpoint, you think about what you would think about the issue if it were a U.S./United Nations conversation. Do you really want the United Nations making laws governing the day-to-day lives of individuals in the U.S., for any issue no matter how well warranted?

Douglas seems to be viewing the debate in those terms. It wasn’t until after Lincoln that people thought of the U.S. first and their state second. Back then it was more like each state was their own country, and the question was how sovereign was each state. In our own time, I’m hoping we answer the question by saying “no” to a globalized policing force and lawmaking body. No good can come of that, even if the issues of the moment are worthy and good.