We Need to Talk About Federation
Think of Florida as a (very large) teenager who makes bad choices
More state control is milder than secession, and can unify the country
I, personally, think Florida (as a group) is pretty poorly behaved. But at some point, that’s on them and it is neither my business nor my concern. If you live in Florida, I think that kind of sucks….for you. But you moved to Florida, or stayed there, right? At some point, you need to move out of the state, push for change in Florida, or just suck it up. But don’t expect the country to tear itself apart trying to put Governor DeSantis back into whatever box he crawled out of.
Maybe you love Florida. Good luck! I could be wrong about the issues: let’s all check back in a few years and see how it went.
(I actually like Florida and Floridians, but I have a piece to write here, ok?)
Similarly, but from a conservative viewpoint, many say California is spiraling down due to high taxes, unbalanced budgets and ridiculous housing costs. (NIMBYfornia?)
In fact, there is a powerful trend where Californians move to Texas. Go for it! But please don’t set the rest of the country on fire on your way out.
I mean — how great would it be if an idiot from Berkeley, CA or Birmingham, AL was just that — some random idiot from a small city thousands of miles away from where you live who has little impact on your life?
Policy differences don’t have to become paralyzing political divisions
Today, more than ever, people in different states think differently. Or at least in different proportions — there are still radical progressives in Tennessee, and staunch conservatives in Massachusetts, but statistically the state trends are clear.
One solution to inter-state differences is to impose more Federal control on the states to force unity of behavior, but at the expense of actual unity. The reality is pretty clear where we have a strong Federal government yet it has not solved our problems, and we are now actually unravelling as a country.
Fortunately, we have a political knob between Federal and state control that is easy enough to turn back toward the states. The tension between state and Federal power is built into the Constitution, with the people collectively deciding which issues to address at what level, swinging the pendulum back and forth.
Winner-take-all-democracy is not democratic
A victory of the many states over the few, which forces a behavior change without winning hearts or minds, is not a lasting or healthy victory, as Martin Luther King repeatedly wrote about in a racial context. By imposing a solution on many disagreeing states, we are forcing behavior and triggering resentfulness among dissenters. It may look like unity or progress from the outside, but is bitter and angry on the inside, and engenders fear of what comes next.
States are Laboratories of Democracy
States, however, can enthusiastically try different approaches to the things they do control. Succeed or fail, we all learn from these experiments. From COVID mitigation to tax policy, we have already learned a lot.
- Consider Kansas’ failed low-tax, trickle-down economic experiment. There would be no arguing with them if they had not tried it, because a quasi-religious anti-tax view had taken hold. Now, hopefully, we can all learn and move on (today, even Republicans realize that indiscriminate tax cuts harm a state).
- Consider San Francisco’s well-intentioned tolerance of their homeless population. It seemed like the right thing to do, but when every resident (housed or not) was hopping over human feces on the sidewalk, it became too much. Even San Francisco’s progressive mayor realized the city needed to crack down, and declared a state of emergency.
These failures are arguably much better than imposing the “right” policy nationally and instantly, but then arguing over it for decades without any data from different attempts and policies.
Slower, more deliberative and democratic approaches and experiments are needed to reach consensus.
J. S. Mill on freedom and reduced control
John Stuart Mill, perhaps the most influential philosopher of the 19th century, reasons that freedom of speech and action are both important because we are arrogant and have blind spots. We often hold a dear opinion as absolute truth.
[T]he peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
[…]
[and] so is it that there should be different experiments of living; that free scope should be given to varieties of character, short of injury to others; and that the worth of different modes of life should be proved practically. — J. S. Mill
The Federal government does guarantee our rights
Certainly, the Federal government, when too weak, has allowed states to abuse their residents, shirk their responsibilities, and harm other states.
- Southern states abused and disenfranchised Black residents in a variety of ways. Federal oversight, and a civil war were needed to protect the rights of all Americans in the South. Issues remain, though this is a very different issue today than in 1950, or certainly in 1850.
- Before the US Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation which allowed States too much freedom, to the point of freeloading and not paying for the military.
- States today can affect other states more easily through pollution and other behaviors. Our country is more crowded and interconnected than ever before, and regulations are needed.
So a strong role exists for the Federal Government — just not the ossified, overweening role we evolved before and after WWII, and which we now attempt to impose in these early decades of the 21st century.
Excessive Federal power is one root of our political division
Centralized power in the Federal government has unfortunately made control of Congress a high stakes, take-no-prisoners competition. Personified in Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s passion for obstruction, some on both sides of the aisle think that a dysfunctional country is better than a successful administration run by the other party.
Experimentation and tolerance can wind down the culture war I wrote about earlier, where so many Americans think that the wrong Federal policy is a threat to their very existence. Winding down the culture war may, in fact, be more important than any particular Federal policy.
When, and how, is more State or Federal control better?
About that “knob” we can turn between State and Federal control. In which situations should we turn it, and by how much?
Our balance toward stronger Federal power made great sense in the 1930s and 1940s. We had wars to fight for the very survival of our country and democracy itself, against the rise of fascism. The South was still committed to slavery, with legal and state-level support, and Federal oversight was needed.
Neither of these factors are strongly in play today. Racism exists (particularly as the newer “structural” concept), but there is broad agreement throughout the country that all people must be treated equally and fairly. Our wars are now wars of choice rather than survival. Democracy flourishes around the world, despite some backsliding in the former Eastern Bloc.
This is not to say the country has no issues, but merely that the factors driving strong Federal control in the early 20th century don’t have the same urgency or extent today in the 21st, and it is time to turn that knob.
But… racists used the idea of “States’ Rights” to oppress minorities
Unfortunately, racists and white supremacists have often tried to justify slavery and abuse using the term “States’ Rights.” This was invalid because it prevented millions of Americans from realizing their full rights, including the right to leave and move to another state.
I hope people can get past buzzwords from the 1800s. Nobody wants to revive slavery, so the resistance to state power from earlier centuries, and the charged term “states’ rights” is less relevant today.
Benefits of State control
When adjusting the balance, here are some goals to consider when returning power to the States.
- We will be more free in our own states to govern and be governed how we wish.
- We can “vote with our feet” to live in the kind of societies that suit us.
- Our culture wars and dysfunctional politics are driven by a fear of cultural domination (as I wrote recently). Allowing states to govern themselves more fully reduces this fear.
- Minding our own business and focusing on how and where we actually affect one another will “lower the political temperature” in the US and preserve democracy.
- It is not all or nothing. We can still enforce equal rights for all with a strong (enough) Federal Government, without triggering the culture wars.
I realize that <your favorite issue here> is so clearly right and urgent (to you ) that you feel a need impose your political will on people in other states. Sadly, giving up power is hard and may be the price for a functioning society.
My guess is most people are fine with both abortion policy in Mexico and gun control in Canada. Perhaps even media control in Hungary and religious intolerance in Egypt. If the border is national instead of inter-state, the political/psychological temperature is much lower already. There is obviously no need for the level of anger and bitterness about differences in politics and policy among our own states, toward our own fellow citizens, when we simultaneously tolerate a wide variety of practices around the world.
A softer alternative to a real split
Moving toward state control is an alternative to actual secession or civil war; while I’m not saying that we are headed for war, but clearly the risk is increasing. Many people today live in a righteous bubble where they think their part of the country should seceded (sometimes stated in jest, but dearly held in truth): many in New England, Texas, Northern California and the Old South would all like out, at least at some psychological level.
Loosen up and give people some slack. We can land in the right place eventually, but we need to let people live and experiment, even when we don’t like it.
