"DisUnion" and the future of America

[WhiskeyGirl]

This is an interesting series of discussions on why the United States is so dysfunctional.  It seems like the existing union is to large to represent all the people.  It's a form of monarchy that allows the federal government control more than any monarch in history.

'Fixing the human scale of self government'

"Professor Livingston: This is not, nor was America ever a Republic"

http://www.mikechurch.com/Public-Transcripts/interview-professor-livingston-disects-the-state-of-the-union.html

One example he uses is Obamacare.  In his suggestion, Congress would propose/suggest legislation and send it to every state legislation for approval.  All 50 states would have the opportunity to dissect  the legislation and vote.   In Washington today, Senators, Congressment, and the President don't seem to read anything. 

How likely would it be that Obamacare would have passed enough states to become law?  The 'bank' bailout?  Stimulus?

Another thought was that larger urban areas would become their own city states.  Maybe we'd have 750 states instead of 50?

Are we back at 1776?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Two types of Americans - Jeffersonian and Lincolnonian.

Jefferson - decentralized, competition for good government, libertarian, many nation/states with common American roots

Lincoln - centralized

One example he gives of a decentralized form is Switzerland.  The 'cantons' (like a state) determine citizenship, everyone seems to own automatic weapons, and there is little if any gun crime.

Isn't Switzerland a cool neutral country?  Provides a good life for its citizens?  No overreaching central government?

Ideas for the future of America.

just my humble opinions

[WhiskeyGirl]

The professor belongs to an institute -

Why the Institute was Founded. In a healthy society, education is the thoughtful enjoyment of a cultural inheritance. But American society today is in the grip of an ideological culture war. During the last thirty years, colleges and universities have come to be dominated by the ideologies of multiculturalism and political correctness. The result is that the distinctly Southern interpretation of American history and identity is simply not taught. If the Southern tradition is mentioned at all, it is usually vilified as little more than a mask for racism. In ignoring or eliminating the Southern tradition, much that is good and noble in American life is rendered inexplicable; but perhaps more importantly one erases from memory a valuable intellectual and spiritual resource for exposing and correcting the errors of American modernity.

Eugene Genovese, a distinguished historian of the South--a northerner and a man of the left--has been a rare voice in criticizing this purge of the Southern tradition from the academy. In the Massey Lectures given at Harvard, he had this to say: "Rarely these days, even on southern campuses, is it possible to acknowledge the achievements of the white people of the South...To speak positively about any part of this southern tradition is to invite charges of being a racist and an apologist for slavery and segregation. We are witnessing a cultural and political atrocity--an increasingly successful campaign by the media and an academic elite to strip young white southerners, and arguably black southerners as well, of their heritage, and, therefore, their identity. They are being taught to forget their forebears or to remember them with shame."

http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/

I've never head of the Jefferson concept for America.  A number of unions, that competed with one another.

Does Washington care about anything that goes on in Main Street?  All I hear of are movements to circumvent the electoral college and elect the president based on the popular vote.

What are the chances that any vote from smaller states will matter?  That votes from large urban areas on the coasts will be the only votes that matter at election time?

The large urban areas will continue to bleed the nation dry, and refuse to contribute?

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

A better alternative to mob/union rule?  A way forward that respects the individual?  Let's individuals keep the fruit of their labor?

A better way forward?  An end to big government corruption, squandering/waste/fraud/abuse?

Out of control spending in Washington?  Out of control money creation at the Fed?