Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

States' rights under a federated system still mean something – except when they mean nothing to the reigning power. Britain, by withdrawing from the European Union (EU), has just provided to the free world’s democratic remnant a valuable lesson in sovereignty. Among other reasons the “Leave” party in Britain was anxious to dissever the ties that bound it to the EU was a loss of decision-making power, the leeching of sovereignty from Britain to Brussels, where matters of national import were decided by EU bureaucrats fortified against a democratic voting process to which the government of Britain had since the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, which led through Britain’s  1689 Bill of Rights  to a Parliamentary ascendancy, willingly bent its knees.

Readers of this page may be surprised to learn that the U.S. Congress still prays. Convocations during opening sessions are common among Congressmen even today when, largely because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, open displays of religious expression are discouraged. In what may be his most famous inaugural address, President Abe Lincoln said, “Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-men’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.’”