Ah, but the point is, I don't trust either of them. The feds have vast resources with which to screw with me, if they choose, and the locals are here in my face, up close and personal, allowing them to screw with me in ways that the feds can't, if for no other reason than that I am far more likely to go unnoticed by Congress than by the local sheriff. The feds are immensely powerful, but they are far away. The locals are somewhat less potent, but I am far more likely to encounter the minor demons they represent than I am to run afoul of the arch-fiends in Washington. The next time you have to stand in line for two hours at the DMV, remember that it's not Congress, generally speaking, who's making you waste your valuable time like that.
And that's sort of the point of making the Bill of Rights binding upon all state actors, at every level. "Inalienable" rights that can be violated and are unrecognized by the very people you are most likely to need their protections against are, as a practical matter, worthless. Ask tpaine - he'll be happy to tell you how your "inalienable" right to keep and bear arms is entirely "alienable" if you happen to live in California, or New York City, or Washington DC, or a host of other places. And an "inalienable" right that you can't actually exercise is purely a theoretical construct - it no longer has any practical relevance to your life or the way you live it.
... the point of making the Bill of Rights binding upon all state actors, at every level. "Inalienable" rights that can be violated and are unrecognized by the very people you are most likely to need their protections against are, as a practical matter, worthless.
I do see that California, big enough to be its own country, must have had a lousy set of founders if they haven't constitutionalized that a person's means of self-protection are inviolable. But what if I live in a state that has had more liberty-minded founders? Say it has an even more sharply drawn BOR than the US, what good would incorporation be to the folks in my state?