Very interesting article. During Covid I noticed how local norms and culture as well as local governance mattered far more than the federal rules. Same rules but a radically different lived experience.
Also, I was traveling in France this year and visited a few castles. Some had been in the same family for hundreds of years. I asked the tour guide how these families held onto their castles during the revolution and he explained that the French Revolution was mainly Paris. The countryside was robbed of anything movable but for the most part those outside Paris simply ignored all the new edicts etc and kept on as before. So long as they kept their heads down and mouths shut they were more or less able to ignore the revolution.
The lesson seems to be that local matters most so when possible try to pick your neighbours carefully!
Well said. I've also wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea to scatter the many departments of the federal government* out into the "real world" - and away hive-mind of DC. After all, we've proven it's no longer necessary for them to all be in the same place at the same time. Why not let them work amidst the little people they wish to rule? Certainly Sterling Kansas, Waco, Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Bangor, Maine and the like would welcome a group of federal office workers into their communities, their schools, and places of worship.
* Of course, it's a better idea still to simply disband most of the departments of the federal government. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
Excellent as always Keith! I especially liked your mini take down of the abortion kerfuffle. After Roe was sent to the states, I was inundated by screams of horror and requests for cash from US prolife groups. And I live in Canada! They exposed their grift.
Perhaps the subsidiarity that you advocate (correctly) needs a bit of national "drain the swampism" too. I am fond of the Meili approach. If the agency has 3 letters then, "Afuera!"
I follow national, state and local politics because all of them affect our lives, as we've seen with the edicts from the Biden administration. It's been good to see republican governors fight back against the dem dictatorship.
Well done! As I think through the process you’re addressing, I consider the Supreme Court. Much is made of the court being stacked in favor of conservatives. And I suppose for this brief moment it is. But when you consider it in comparison with the bureaucracy of the federal government, the court is a minor player in the government’s system. Perhaps the right has stacked the court, but the power of the bureaucracy is so large, the court is always behind in corrective actions of the congress, the president and a vast bureaucracy that has left leanings. Our survival as a strong nation depends upon our ability to shrink the bureaucracy or turn its power back to individual states.
Very interesting article. During Covid I noticed how local norms and culture as well as local governance mattered far more than the federal rules. Same rules but a radically different lived experience.
Also, I was traveling in France this year and visited a few castles. Some had been in the same family for hundreds of years. I asked the tour guide how these families held onto their castles during the revolution and he explained that the French Revolution was mainly Paris. The countryside was robbed of anything movable but for the most part those outside Paris simply ignored all the new edicts etc and kept on as before. So long as they kept their heads down and mouths shut they were more or less able to ignore the revolution.
The lesson seems to be that local matters most so when possible try to pick your neighbours carefully!
Interesting connection between loose coupling and national politics.
Well said. I've also wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea to scatter the many departments of the federal government* out into the "real world" - and away hive-mind of DC. After all, we've proven it's no longer necessary for them to all be in the same place at the same time. Why not let them work amidst the little people they wish to rule? Certainly Sterling Kansas, Waco, Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Bangor, Maine and the like would welcome a group of federal office workers into their communities, their schools, and places of worship.
* Of course, it's a better idea still to simply disband most of the departments of the federal government. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
Excellent as always Keith! I especially liked your mini take down of the abortion kerfuffle. After Roe was sent to the states, I was inundated by screams of horror and requests for cash from US prolife groups. And I live in Canada! They exposed their grift.
Perhaps the subsidiarity that you advocate (correctly) needs a bit of national "drain the swampism" too. I am fond of the Meili approach. If the agency has 3 letters then, "Afuera!"
I follow national, state and local politics because all of them affect our lives, as we've seen with the edicts from the Biden administration. It's been good to see republican governors fight back against the dem dictatorship.
Sounds like the the 10th amendment to the constitution!
Well done! As I think through the process you’re addressing, I consider the Supreme Court. Much is made of the court being stacked in favor of conservatives. And I suppose for this brief moment it is. But when you consider it in comparison with the bureaucracy of the federal government, the court is a minor player in the government’s system. Perhaps the right has stacked the court, but the power of the bureaucracy is so large, the court is always behind in corrective actions of the congress, the president and a vast bureaucracy that has left leanings. Our survival as a strong nation depends upon our ability to shrink the bureaucracy or turn its power back to individual states.