The Party of Diversity should Support Diversity of Power

There is something funny going on. The "narrow minded" people on the Right are sounding more like their liberal counterparts when it comes to the issue of diversity. "Diversity" has been the battle cry of the left for decades. It has been (oddly) the driver behind multiculturalism and political correctness and has long been held among the most important of "liberal values."

Unfortunately, limiting diversity to the way we view ethnic and other social groups is only scratching the surface. Diversity is defined as "the state or fact of being diverse" "difference," "unlikeness," "variety," and "multiformity." In other words, "diversity" stands for more, much more.

Diversity can be used in the way we approach virtually every issue. In the name of diversity, we should allow each state of the Union to develop its own minimum wage policies. Michigan, for example, may want to help the city of Detroit and let them develop a minimum wage that is lower than the rest of the state in order to combat its 20 percent plus unemployment. Same with East St. Louis, Il (30 percent unemployment); Camden, NJ (32 percent), and others. I would be fine with the Federal Government ending minimum wage laws entirely. Short of that, the Feds should mandate the states to create their own minimum wage laws and let the problem solving begin. It is insane to have a federal government on the other side of the country set a minimum wage for areas that are desperate in attracting employers and opportunity.

Environmental regulations would be another great place to move back to the states. Instead of a "Super Fund" designed to clean polluted areas devised by the Feds and (according to the National Center for Policy Analysis) 80 percent of the dollars going to lawyers, or "one size fits all" regulations that put small business into bankruptcy, the states should be the leader in establishing regulations. They would set rules that would protect wildlife and nature, while placing humans and employment as the number one priority. From the competition of the states in public policy we would learn the best ways to develop sound policies.

This is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind. They saw the United States as a "nation of nations." This is why they developed the Tenth Amendment and limited the federal government to only seventeen powers in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. They believed this dispersion of power would not only protect our freedoms, but lead to the best ideas to solve problems, having the best opportunity to be developed. Other states would voluntarily adopt policies that worked and would avoid those that didn't. Furthermore, this diversity of power would protect all the states from becoming too big. If taxes became too high and regulations too oppressive, people would leave such states in mass. It is the ultimate example of "checks and balances."

Diversity should not be preserved in a monolithic federal government, but promoted through fifty unique and strong states. Advocates of diversity should be fighting for states' rights more than any other special interest group.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business, the longest running show on AM 650 (M-F at 11 am) in Houston, Texas and on AOL Radio. Eric Bolling of Fox News and Fox Business says that Price’s Blog “is very influential and moves the blogosphere.” Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal calls Price the “best business talk show host in the country.” Find out why and visit his blog at www.BizPlusBlog.com and his show site at www.PriceofBusiness.com. You can also find Price on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com.