In the early 19th century, John Taylor of Caroline warned about the fusion of big government, big banks, and finance capital.

All three could be tamed, but only if they never aligned.

He particularly worried about the impact unconstitutional tariffs, federally funded internal improvements, and a central bank would have on the American political order.

These were the vehicles for the paper jobbers to take over the United States.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because everything Taylor warned about has come to fruition.

The American “nationalists” used emotional appeal to the “general welfare” of the Union to foist a neo-mercantilist corporate welfare system on a clearly duped American public.

This new corporate elite was never concerned about tradition, only profit, and if tradition stood in the way of profit or some social crusade, the tradition had to be bulldozed.

Federalism, the bedrock of the American political tradition, stood in the way of this type of innovation, and went hand in hand with the preservation of traditional American folkways and culture.

A type of Northern (Yankee) imperialism took hold of the United States in the years after the War in 1865 and drove a monolithic and plastic consumer driven society down the throats of the American States.

As Taylor warned, this was only possible because of newly greased centralized general government.

We can thank St. Abraham the Wise and the Republican Party for this beautiful gift.

Expanded presidential war powers, more powerful central banking, high protective tariffs, federally funded railroads, and a host of other unconstitutional nonsense awaited Americans on the other side of the War.

Northern farmers figured it out too late. They should have listened to antebellum Southerners.

Corporate American establishment oligarchs now run the entire system, from the political establishment to the cultural “Americanism” that bombards us on a daily basis through their willing accomplices in the mass media.

You cannot divorce the culture war from the destruction of real federalism in America.

Last week, Nicole Williams wrote a nice piece at Law and Liberty that explained this problem.

It also led to a listener sending me the article asking for my comments.

Episode 891 of The Brion McClanahan Show was born.