Andrew Sullivan: ‘We Normally Devolve’ Decisions Like Abortion to the States, ‘That’s the Genius’ of Federalism

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” writer Andrew Sullivan pushed back on complaints that the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade has made it like we have two different countries with different levels of rights by pointing out that we’ve “always” had that system in America because our system is designed to be a federalist system where “we normally devolve these decisions to the states. That’s the genius of the American system. There doesn’t have to be one consistent national opinion on everything.”

After host Bill Maher argued that, after the Supreme Court ruling, “we’re basically living in like two different countries.” Sullivan countered, “We’ve always lived in that country. … It’s federalism. If you think that Alabama is always going to have the same politics as Illinois or Oregon, you’re crazy. So, we normally devolve these decisions to the states. That’s the genius of the American system. There doesn’t have to be one consistent national opinion on everything. We’d go crazy.” And “Congress could do it today, if they wanted to, pass a law saying abortion is legal in every state. But they don’t have the votes. Because this country is divided.”

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