[lentulusgracchus]

The “American Experiment” came to an abrupt end when all three Presidential hopefuls endorsed the income tax in 1912.

No, earlier. Lincoln crushed the States and destroyed any idea of States' rights and the People as sovereign. Now the Plutocracy is sovereign, joined within the last two generations by the New Class, and Government is their towel-boy, henchman, and knucklecrusher.

Remember, Lincoln introduced an income tax and made people pay it -- and kept the money -- without a scintilla of law on his side, as a political-strongman act. He was a dictator, and he achieved his dictatorship by setting the People at each others' throats.

[rollo tomasi]

I understand what you are saying, but mainly time and some USSC decisions halted many of Lincolns “advancements”. After reconstruction, there was some semblance of self-government still left, then came “the Progressives” and Amendments to the Constitution that “sealed the deal”.