A Return to Federalism

“The country is coming apart at the seams, and the fundamental reason, in my opinion, is a lack of federalism.  What I mean by that is, is whoever is in power in Washington D.C., whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, roughly 50% of the country is angry about everything that is happening.”

Mark Meckler

Yes.  Absolutely correct.  I have long argued for a federalist approach to most issues.  Abortion law is unchanged in many states.  The most vociferous defenders of Roe v. Wade live in states that have retained the same laws as they had last week.  Their states are pro-choice.  They are protesting about laws in states where they do not live.  Meckler further states:

“There’s too much being decided in D.C., and the way we solve the discord and calm everything down is to take the power away from D.C. and give it back to the states. Then we can debate these issues in the states where it was always intended to be done."

Exactly right.  Decisions made in D.C. become a one-size-fits-all solution for 50 different states.  A gun control policy ideal for New York could be impractical for Wyoming.  A water conservation law that would be perfect for Nevada might be ludicrous for Hawaii.  Each state can come to its own conclusion.

The Supreme Court imposed a policy for all 50 states in 1973.  The current court has announced that each state may decide how it wants to legislate the issue.  Rather than a majority of 9 people deciding for more than 300 million people, the individual states will come to decisions with considerably more input from the voters.

The Dobbs decision does signal a sea change in the court.  If the overbroad interpretation of the 14th amendment was incorrect in the case of Roe v. Wade, then it was also incorrect in a number of other instances.  The pendulum is starting to swing the other direction.

Meckler holds that the country is on a path of dissolution.  He calls it the Great Decoupling.  It could come apart by secession and civil war (I have addressed this with posts on Calexit and Texit) or by a return to federalism.  The central government will lose power either way, but the latter is peaceful and preserves the union.  The question is, can we return to federalism peacefully?