An open question in my mind is a hypothetical.\u00a0 Bear with me for a moment.\u00a0 Let\u2019s suppose that sometime in the coming months a portion of the country will begin to go its own way on federal laws that overstep what is tolerable by the people living there.\u00a0 Maybe it will start with gun rights or abortion or illegal immigration.\u00a0 Under this hypothetical, a state, let\u2019s say Texas, will defy some federal laws and somehow manages to make it stick.\u00a0 For the sake of argument let\u2019s say that the federal government decides that ignoring the decision is in their short-term interests and they take no action.\u00a0 And let us further suppose that this behavior is copied by the rest of the red states and after a certain amount of time it becomes the status quo with both red and blue states ignoring whatever federal laws they don\u2019t agree with.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a very improbable supposition if you look at what\u2019s going on with drug and gun laws in the blue states.\u00a0 It only requires that some red state shows the backbone to defy the tyrants in Washington D.C.\u00a0 So, this is the scenario.<\/p>\n
Now here\u2019s the question.\u00a0 If these states start making their own laws, will they mimic the blue states and make these laws punitive against the subset of their citizens that have blue state lifestyles and values?\u00a0 As an example of blue state behavior, I will mention Colorado\u2019s repeated prosecution of a wedding baker for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding.\u00a0 Even after the Supreme Court decided in his favor the authorities in Colorado are still harassing him.<\/p>\n
Obviously if red states wanted to rearrange the social order, they could outlaw homosexual marriage.\u00a0 They could reinstate sodomy laws, effectively criminalizing homosexuality.\u00a0 They could ban pornography.\u00a0 There are many steps that they could take to reverse the current legal status of many things they object to.<\/p>\n
And that is my question.\u00a0 Would they draw the line at preventing the rights of normal people from being trampled on?\u00a0 This would involve restoring the bill of rights, that is, freedom of speech, religion, association.\u00a0 And also restoring equal protection under the law by eliminating affirmative action for women and minorities.<\/p>\n
Or would they go well beyond that to remove the innovations that the Left has pushed on us under the label of social justice?\u00a0 This would include eliminating abortion, homosexual rights including marriage, so-called transgender status and other progressive mandates that have been forced through over the years.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, this is all a hypothetical exercise.\u00a0 Even the first group of changes that just restore the rights of normal people aren\u2019t anywhere on the horizon in any red state right now.\u00a0 But if our side ever gets going with reestablishing our rights then the question will be asked whether we want to limit the changes to things we\u2019ve lost or extend it to reordering society so that those who despise us aren\u2019t accommodated by the law.<\/p>\n
So, there\u2019s the whole question.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what the Red States would do in this scenario.\u00a0 Maybe it will be a range of things depending on the state.\u00a0 Maybe a place like Florida would be in the first case.\u00a0 Whereas some place like Alabama might be closer to the second case.\u00a0 One thing that might color the way people act is the knowledge that making it uncomfortable for people who have been persecuting you for the last fifty years might motivate them to leave and go live in a blue state.\u00a0 And in fact, thinking about the policies like the one in Colorado leads me to believe that blue states have been doing this exact thing all along.\u00a0 So, as the saying goes, \u201cWhat goes around comes around.\u201d\u00a0 Who knows, whole cities like Austin might empty out overnight.<\/p>\n
Anyway, what do you think is the likely behavior?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nSorry, there are no polls available at the moment.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An open question in my mind is a hypothetical.\u00a0 Bear with me for a moment.\u00a0 Let\u2019s suppose that sometime in the coming months a portion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\n