Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks, you’ve heard about the leak. No, I’m not talking about the day I wore boxer shorts and dribbled a little bit – I’m talking about THE leak. The one from the Supreme Court. The one that identified that Roe vs. Wade would likely be overturned in the near future and the decision left up to the states.
These are the same states that can’t seem to get organized on anything – the same states that in one breath could legalize carrying a concealed automatic weapon but outlaw carrying a marijuana joint. The same states that, around here at least, seem to buy up orange barrels just to set them out – but don’t actually do any construction. The states that are trying to steal baseball teams from other states. (I’m looking at you, Kansas.)
Those states.
If you are looking for things that are left up to the states to tell you whether they’re legal or not, you’re soon going to need some sort of special map. You can go to Kansas soon to do sports betting, but if you want to drive over 75 you’ll need to keep driving into Wyoming. If you want to have an abortion, you can go to Minnesota, but if you want to have a same-sex marriage, you’ll need to take a left and head to Colorado.
The 10th Amendment to the Constitution is the one that seems to be causing all the confusion here. It’s the one that says that only the federal government can declare war, but the rest is up to you and the people you live around. It’s almost as if they wanted to put a shrugging emoji in the Constitution before it even existed.
We should be used to this by now. We are just getting over a nearly block-by-block reading of where you were required or not required to wear a mask. And anyone over a certain age used to know all about heading across the border to Kansas to *ahem* buy alcohol if you were under 21. But this is starting to get ridiculous.
How fractured can this country become when you look at a city like Kansas City where on one side of the street you can buy weed and on the other side of the street you can buy groceries without sales tax.
Modern times and technology gave the promise of a smaller, more consistent world. However, it seems you’re going to need to Google where and when you can place a sports bet or drop a few coins in a slot machine and it can change from year to year – sometimes going forward as is the case with sports betting in Kansas – and can go backward – as is the case with the death penalty in a number of states that has increased significantly. You sneeze in the wrong place in Texas and they line you up to put holes in you.
Sure, the country is divided – many would say 50/50 on a number of issues. But it also seems that the lack of leadership at the federal level causes us to be in this situation in the first place. What we need is a purpose and a direction, and it seems that Washington seems to revel when the country is at a standstill.
So it’s up to us. Me and you, but maybe not the gal two blocks down, because she might live in Kansas or Iowa where the thing I like is illegal. Insert shrug emoji here.
(Get more from Chris Kamler on Twitter, where you’ll find him pontificating as @TheFakeNed)