“Federalism” is the word used to describe the Constitution’s system of dividing political power between the national government and the states.
The National Constitution Center
I’ve mentioned federalism a few times over the past year or two. Every time I mention it, I go back to the web-dictionary just to make double sure I’m not using a concept the opposite of how it’s intended. Any reader could be excused for thinking the same thing. There are two concepts of power in American civics; the idea that a centralized federal government can and should keep gobbling up more of everything, more domination, money, decision making, control, and the notion that government should remain more decentralized and local. The word ‘federalism’ sounds like it should describe the first, but it is instead the latter. If it were not for federalism, the federal government would have long ago run roughshod over all your affairs such that we’d likely be in a far more dysfunctional autocracy by now. Federalism has saved us – thus far.
States are rediscovering federalism after a long shift that neutralized state initiatives. While it’s always been there in constitutional principle, the outworking has been under assault for decades as adversaries advanced far greater federal power. Federalism was associated with and denigrated as ‘states rights’, a term used to defend slave holding states in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, truly big government became a big thing. While both major parties are of course guilty, Democrats discovered the self-serving benefits of major federal initiatives and guarantees – states be damned. The programs of FDR and Johnson are the most notable. What a chief executive or legislature could not do engendered a new activism through the courts, particularly, the Supreme Court. Roe V Wade became the ultimate blueprint for federal judicial activism. In the present, a conservative Supreme Court is returning to originalist constitutional interpretation and along with-it, federalism. Witness the Dobbs decision which does not outlaw abortion, instead sending it back to the individual states.
The aggressive push for complete central federal control is still the desperate ambition of progressives. A one-party Washington is the ultimate prize for the Democrats from which they could control and extend their reign in perpetuity, if they can successfully own the federal courts and the federal purse strings from which they could forever buy elections with money stolen from us, or really, printed new money accorded to us as forever unpayable debt due, but thus far, they’ve fallen short. They don’t own the courts and though they’ve plunged us into deep recession trying to buy their agenda, they’ve turned the working people of the United States against them. This is time to move forward.
The states of Florida and Texas have led the way in high profile seizing the initiative against a failed federal government. First, in fighting back against Covid mandates and now in illegal immigration. Texas in fact vows to do what the Biden federal government is constitutionally mandated to do but refuses. This sets a pattern for a resurgence of state authority. If a state follows the United States constitution where the federal government refuses to and there is support from the Supreme Court, states will prevail, at least in this season.
We cannot and should not presume conservative policies upon failed ultra-progressive states. Let those states will have to suffer for their own folly and as it becomes intolerable for any that are sensible, they should migrate, as is already occurring in from the far-left coast, New York, and Illinois.
Rather than accept small incremental wins as the capstone of federalism, states should press forward with further tests. The left doesn’t hesitate to do so as witnessed by New York State hastening to water down the Supreme Court’s June ruling in favor of gun carry regulations. Border states could yet significantly drive and enforce standing immigration law. Conservative states, following Florida’s example, can grow and prosper and use that as an engine to reinforce conservative law and the still crucial federal representation. Regional alliances and cooperation would help strengthen their hand. A special focus must be placed on each states judiciary and high courts which have evolved into a branch that routinely neutralizes the elected will of the people.
County and township governments are your neighbors who eventually go on to represent your interests to the state. State government is an entity large enough to make a big difference and enact dramatic benefits for residents, but small enough to still respond directly to its constituency on a personal level. States still have the ability to collectively tame the federal leviathan, it’s called federalism.