Yet one ought not let nostalgia for the federalism that has been lost become a basis for criticism of the GOP in Congress today. There is simply not enough of a political constituency for old-style federalism to make it possible to roll back the federal government to a pre-New Deal reading of the Constitution. Even advocacy of that from the GOP would be politically suicidal, and whatever else one may want to say about the defects of the GOP, one cannot fairly demand that they destroy themselves for the sake of a lost cause.
True...I do have the luxury of pontificating from my chair in front of a computer rather than the campaign trail
"There is simply not enough of a political constituency for old-style federalism to make it possible to roll back the federal government to a pre-New Deal reading of the Constitution."
Let me know when someone tries it so I can see if you're right. When's the last time the federal government actually devolved something to the states entirely? When's the last time it was proposed by a president?
No, it MIGHT be a third rail if someone on the national scene even pretended it was a possibility, but they simply don't. Instead, we get federal money given back to the states under federal constraints, for highways, education, all sorts of crap the federal government ought not to be regulating.