A plea for more federalism. David French writes:
It is absolutely clear from recent American history that the public likes a divided federal government. One party is able to enjoy dominance only for brief periods of time. But it’s also clear that the public is choosing unified state government, and that those unified states are not scattered willy-nilly across the nation. Instead, they tend to be geographically contiguous with like-minded states and culturally distinct from competing regions. […]
[W]e are moving to a new reality for modern America. Geographically contiguous, culturally similar, and economically potent American regions are now also increasingly politically uniform.
It is imperative that the national government adapt to this reality. One party or the other will of course control the White House and may (briefly) control both houses of the legislature, but if either party overreaches in its short period of total control, it will trigger a furious response. And the greater the attempted power grab (say, ending the legislative filibuster, followed by court-packing or single-payer), the greater the response.
Politically unified states can be bold. A federal government presiding over perilously divided American regions should be cautious. Any other approach will only increase the bitterness and rancor of American political life, and we cannot presume our nation will always survive its widespread rage.
[David French, “The Dangerously Unified States of America,” National Review, November 9]
