It's worth stopping to think what differentiates states now apart from the landscape, climate and regional accents.
I see your point regarding the homogenization of our lifestyles and see it as generally a good thing.
Still, as far as enacting laws that run counter to the "national norm", states do vary widely in terms of taxation, legalization of gambling and prostitution, gay marriage, medicinal cannabis, state lotteries, liquor laws, blue laws, speed limits, open container laws, simple possession laws and election laws, to name a few off the top of my head.
And I see no reason why they shouldn't continue to do so, the cautionary example of the interstate tensions leading up to the Civil War notwithstanding.
The closest town to where I live is home to seven national headquarters for various church denominations. They still say prayers over the intercom in the public schools, in defiance of the national law against it. And no one complains.
They want to live that way, they are hurting nobody and although I am not in agreement with their religious views, I applaud them for defying a federal government that thinks it knows what is best for all citizens, regardless of where they live. |
