Greetings,
In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and the United States of America sprang as a fully formed beacon of light and freedom into the world.
Except that’s not what happened at all.
Sure, Jefferson told us “governments were instituted among men” to “secure these [unalienable] rights”, but he didn’t scribble a clue as to how to do it. That task was left to the much-less-famous John Dickinson in 1777’s Articles of Confederation, the first shaky structure for our new nation. It collapsed.
The thirteen colonies, each one a tiny independent nation, were too scared of losing their power to a centralized government to give it enough power to work. There was a Congress but no President or Judiciary. 9 of 13 States were needed to pass any law, and all 13 were necessary to amend. Congress couldn’t tax, and each of the States not only had its own currency but conducted their own foreign policies. When a 1786 tax protest had to be put down using a state militia sponsored by Bostonian businessmen it was obvious a better structure was necessary.
Enter the not-as-famous-as-Jefferson-but-more-famous-than-Dickinson James Madison, the Father of the Constitution. He put together a strong Federal government with counterbalancing branches, strong States that weren’t strong enough to paralyze Federal action, and guaranteed rights for (many) citizens. The Articles showed America’s reticence to a strong Federal government from the very beginning, but the 10 years after the Articles showed why it was so necessary. The ratification of the Constitution in 1788 showed the states understood and agreed. Madison’s idea of a US Federal government was enshrined in the Constitution and became what every person since then, in good times and bad, has meant by “America”.
From the first, people across the political spectrum have always decried the Federal government as not responsive to the needs, wants, or priorities of its constituents. Many of these critiques are deserved, and much of the anger is appropriate and very widely shared. But until the rise of MAGA (or its roots in Tea Party) the answer to the critiques was “change and improvement”. If America was a “flawed experiment” then the answer was to find the flaws and fix them. Today, many people see the Federal Government as unfixable, unnecessary, or even antithetical to America.
Take, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency of the Federal Government that has issued vaccine advice since its founding in 1946. The advice was never binding and the CDC wasn’t necessarily right, wrong, or unassailable, but their expert, science-based guidance was the gold standard for the vaccine community. States and insurance companies used it to establish coverage, doctors used it to provide medical advice, and people used it to make medical decisions. In September, RFK Jr. fired the entire vaccine advisory committee and forced out the director leaving no expert-led guidance on, literally, a life-or-death issue.
Those tiny independent nations were on their own again. The Feds had defaulted on a major responsibility they’d had for 89 years but the need to consider the life and health of our communities hadn’t gone away. Spitting in the face of the idea that “the Left” implodes without Big Government, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and California quickly instituted the Interstate Compact on Vaccines. While the Feds are going by “gut feelings”, the West Coast is issuing advice that isn’t necessarily “right” or “wrong” but IS science-driven. This is just one example of States scrambling to replace something we once took for granted as a function of our Nation.
But it can go further and already is, with our “healthcare system” as a prime example. The Feds obstinately refuse to create an actual system we could all access, so states like Oregon, California, Vermont, and New York are trying to create their own. Lack of reform in the Electoral College has prompted 17 States (so far) to form an Interstate Voting Compact to deliver their presidential electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote. Other states have started looking at compacts for professional licensure, water usage, convict supervision and more. The collapse of FEMA shifts disaster response and recovery to States whether they want it or not. By one count “There are more than 200 active interstate compacts. Twenty-two of them are national in scope, including several with 35 or more member states and an independent commission to administer the agreement. More than 30 compacts are regional, with eight or more member states.”
Of course all those are burdens being dropped by the Feds and picked up by the States. The Feds might be happy to shed the weight, but things may change if the States start getting uppity. Oregon and Maine have refused to send voter data to Trump’s DOJ as the Feds try to influence voting, a task assigned to the States under the Constitution. States that give more to the Federal government than they receive are questioning how much of that tax revenue should stay home. Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin have introduced legislation along these lines, so we’ll soon see how strongly the “States’ rights” proponents in DC feel about their position.
If you, like many, believe “we” have grown too dependent on the Federal government then this could be a good thing… movement away from a “nanny state” and back to rugged individualism. People of good will can debate whether it’s an upside of the current Federal chaos, but one non-debatable consequence is the crippling and possible collapse of the Federal government. For the 237 years since the Articles of Confederation “America” has been a coalition of tiny nations acting as one. The shift back to individual States could have a lot of ideological benefits but at least one thing is certain… “America”, as understood by every person on the planet since Madison wrote the Constitution, will cease to exist.
Make a great day,
