The far left is not going to support federalism, because they love to force their edicts on everyone. I’m talking about the millions upon millions of voters on both left and right that will listen to reason and who reject the crap pouring out of DC these days.
Fact: clear majorities oppose immigration amnesty.
Fact: clear majorities oppose endless wars overseas and American interference in foreign states.
Fact: clear majorities oppose crony capitalism.
These and other issues resonate with American voters, many of whom sit out elections because they’ve realized that Republicans and Democrats are pretty much nothing more than opposite sides of the same coin.
I think there’s a massive opportunity here for leaders who are on the right side of these issues. For those issues where we vehemently disagree? Federalism is the right answer, and I think it’s an answer that’s acceptable to most Americans. You’ll have the holdouts on left (and right) who want to enforce their will on everyone else from DC, but that’s probably not the mainstream (the real mainstream) opinion.
When was the last time you heard a Republican advocate abolishing the Dept of Education, for example, and simply letting states handle it as they're supposed to? You didn't, because if a Republican had, the narrative is that the evil Republican doesn't care about the children or schools and that only the federal government can provide a "quality" education for everyone.
The only possible candidate who can make this case succinctly is Sarah Palin.