“My only regret about the Civil War outcome is the gradual loss of the 10th Amendment - which has allowed the government to grow unchecked ever since the Civil War. I suspect it will take something every bit as traumatic as the Civil War to eventually restore the 10th amendment to it’s original intent, if it were to ever happen at all.”
I had posted much the same thing in an earlier comment. The 10th Amendment made clear the states were at loeast equals to the national government, and in some respects, superior to it. The Civil War (a label I think is wholly inaccurate for what transpired) set the stage for the amendments and laws immediately subsequent to it that so emasculated the 10th Amendment as to render it practically meaningless. The Civil War put the blindfold on the 10th Amendment and the 14th Amendment fired the volley that executed it. Since the 14th Amendment the national governemnt and the courts have been poking the corpse with sticks, in further torment. One of the clearest examples of how the 14th Amendment killed the 10th Amendment is Roe v. Wade. Prior to 1973 it was up to the individual states as to how they wanted to address the abortion issue. Roe v. Wade, and the “right of privacy” it pulled out of thin air, held that the states had no say in the matter at all, that abortion was a national right that superseded and trumped any state decisions.
“Since the 14th Amendment the national governemnt and the courts have been poking the corpse with sticks, in further torment.”
I think the country thirsts for the return of the primacy of states rights except for the specific federal functions enumerated in the Constitution.
This might start to happen when the government defaults on all the promises and obligations it has made to the citizenry. I think this way is possibly the road back to Constitutional sanity. Of course it will take government default on a massive scale and an ensuing economic depression. I used to think this would be highly unlikely, but watching the government interfering in financial markets after causing the problem in the first place - I see this as more possible than ever before.
Once the citizenry realizes the federal government checks aren’t coming anymore, they’ll look to their states and local governments to lead them. If they have selected leaders wisely and don’t depend on someone else to take care of them, they will grow to enjoy the minimalist role of the federal government.
I think the South will fare better than most states in this scenario. The North in general is not as independent minded as a matter of culture - it will be tougher for them.