“Radical Federalism” or Just Federalism?

Lincolnian nationalists have started to see the light, but they still don’t really understand their new perspective.

A senior fellow at the Claremont Institute thinks some type of “radical decentralization” might be the only path forward for the United States.

This would involve not just federalism, but decentralization to the city and county level.

I have to ask, is this really radical or just the core of federalism?

David Hume’s ideal republic involved so much decentralization that corruption of the center would be nearly impossible. In colonial Virginia, the counties sometimes resisted unconstitutional edicts from Richmond.

The entire Stamp Act crisis was a symbol of nullification, the local resisting crown policy, right down to the Suffolk Resolves which called on local leaders to say to to the unconstitutional tax.

Federalism formed the core of the American experience.

So why is it that federalism is now “radical”?

Because the Lincolnian nationalists have ruined America for so long that any departure from the nationalist status quo is deemed “radical.”

Simply suggesting the States have powers or more importantly the States are sovereign and have sovereign rights is considered near heresy.

You can’t genuflect to Lincoln and splash Holy Water on the Gettysburg Address and advocate for localism, decentralization, or federalism.

We have to remember that the Constitution would not have been ratified had the founding generation believed the document created a “national” government.

And news flash: Donald Trump wasn’t going to save America, nor would a new tyrant “make America great again.” We don’t need Superman.

We need Americans thinking locally and acting locally, Americans who believe in “radical federalism,” whatever that means to some Claremont egghead.

In other words, we just America to be the original America before it was destroyed by Lincoln’s mercenaries and nearly 150 years of unconstitutional centralization.

But hey, I welcome this new found love of federalism from the Straussians. Better late than never. I just don’t believe they would be so committed if Donald Trump was still president.

I discuss “radical federalism” in Episode 471 of The Brion McClanahan Show.