"The two instances where federal power has been used to solve controversial moral questions (slavery and abortion) were disasters. Slavery existed in one form or another for 100 years after the 13th amendment in this country, and it is still practiced throughout the world (and that's not even counting the enormous cost in lives of the civil war). Abortion certainly wasn't settled by Roe v. Wade, and its likely that it will take about a century for that issue to be resolved."
I believe what you've identified is the problem of how a unique political entity, that is, American democratic republicanism, has struggled to confront difficult social issues it has encountered through years. Slavery was an economic condition that was abolished in European empires by monarchical decree. The legalization of abortion was enabled in Europe through the use of parliamentary systems that reflected limited democratic participation. The mainstreaming of homosexuality was accomplished in these countries through similar means. These countries all have elitist government that doesn't allow the will of the people to be expressed to the degree of the US system.
The United States was, and is, a unique political entity that the majority of the people in this country still do not seem to appreciate. The genius of the American system was in its ability to accommodate the interests and desires of its disparate States. As a nation, we are continuing to debate and construct the framework within which we function, getting farther removed from the original plan, and to our detriment, in my opinion. There was a lot of good in the earlier framework that we have allowed to be lost through ill-conceived modification of the Constitution.
Consider the difficulties that European nations are struggling with as they attempt to create their own United States of Europe. France has a smaller GDP than the State of Georgia, fer Crissakes! But without the common religious, cultural, and political traditions that existed when the American system was implemented, I don't see any success for their efforts. I even question whether or not the US can maintain its system in the future!
Well said.
Slavery (and abortion) were (are) abhorrent. In a perfect world, they wouldn't exist. Of course, neither would murder, rape, poverty, disease, etc.
The sad fact is that we, as individuals, don't agree on many aspects of life and morality. The question is, what do we do about it?
Picking a side (however "right" it may be) and using the force of the federal government to ram it down the other side's throat hasn't worked all that well in the past. It galvanizes the other side and makes attempts to use reason, logic, and even emotion to sway the other side moot (witness the abortion debate, and the pre-war debate regarding slavery, also the pre-civil-rights legislation in the mid-60's).
It would be nice if force or legislation settled these issues, but history shows that it either prolongs the resolution, or widens the divide.
It's not a question of whether or not the intent is pure, or the intended result is good. That sort of argument brought us the horrors of the last century that linger today. In many ways, the way abortion manifest itself nationally is due in large part to the way that slavery was abolished. Abortion couldn't have been instituted by federal decree in pre-1865 America, but that sort of heavy-handed meddling was all but inevitable afterwards, much as Sobran points out.