United?

How far away from yourself do you want your life controlled? Most people, I like to think, would want as much control over their own lives as possible. For me, the farther away from me that decisions are taken the less likely they are to be beneficial to me. Its also less likely that I will have direct access to the decision makers so I can explain my position.

With this said, it seems to me that there are a lot of US citizens who have the idea that Federal authority is sacred. They view the USA as a single entity and everyone within it should live by the exact same set of rules. Their devotion to perceived “equality” and fairness” makes it impossible for them to consider other possibilities.

They want one set of rules for everyone, for everything. I don’t think this has worked out very well for anyone other than the wealthy and powerful people who wield control over this colossal administrative empire.

Perhaps we are too United? These centralized, one-size-fits-all mandates, well, they don’t fit all. They make people feel that the values of others are being forced upon them. This leads to frustration, anger, resentment, distrust, hatred and violence. In short, the people of this country don’t feel very united. Many view their neighbors as their enemies. Talk of dissolution or civil war grows.

Centralized authority, breeds centralized corruption and centralized wealth, not to mention an ever-increasing slide towards authoritarion, and eventually totalitarian rule. Consider that this country was not founded with strong central authority. It was designed to be a “union of SOVEREIGN states”. The House of Representatives was meant to represent the people. The Senate was meant to represent the state governments. Senators were selected by state legislatures for over 120 years. The 17th Amendment changed this, reducing states abilities to represent themselves at the federal level. The federal government used “broad language” in the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to expand their mandates over intrastate activities. The role of the Federal government, once limited was now nearly omnipotent. What started this change? Slavery.

The abominable practice of human slavery is the “original” sin that ended the “American Experiment”. A war was justly fought to end this practice. The problem is, in freeing the slaves, processes were set in motion that accrued more and more power to the federal government, therein steadily reducing freedom for the individual states and their citizens. The slaves were more free but, over time, our entire society has become much less free. The treatment of African Americans during slavery and the many “Jim Crow”, segregationist years that followed caused the federal government to exert greater control over states to prevent discrimination.

Likewise, federal laws were passed to provide more opportunity to minorities and women that were not forthcoming from some state legislatures. Protection for other groups, based on religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. was also put forth from the federal level. Many members of these groups have come to view the federal government as their protector.

But, at what point does this federal machine cross the line into being our oppressor. For me, that happened long ago. Perhaps others are not at this point yet. I am an advocate for the rapid devolution of authority to the lowest levels possible. We need to recognize how this centralized power is destroying the fabric of our society and centralizing wealth. Very dangerous dynamics occur when the wealth gap between the rich, the middle class and the poor is so vast.

People who feel they have little control over their lives have more anxiety and hopelessness. There is more drug addiction. There is more suicide. There is more competition for scarce resources and violence between the groups attempting to access them. We are seeing all of these processes occurring now. As we have fewer and fewer choices about how we live our lives we become de facto slaves to the systems of the wealthy.

It is well past time to start pulling power back down to the state and local level. It is time to reassert a lot more control over our own lives. Becoming governmentally LESS united may just make us start to feel more like the country we should be.