Excellent post, particularly the Ayn Rand quote from Atlas Shrugged.
Unfortunately, though God apparently thought it a good idea to give us each free will and He doesn't violate it, and our Constitution does state its mission to honor this truth, a great many believe God got that free will thing wrong and that they know better. (anti- "Christ", so to speak?)
The Constitution of our united, yet individual states is NOT perfect, but seems such an ideal way to address and balance our duality that Heinlein speaks to, while protecting ourselves against each other, yet live with each other and advance, thanks to what shakes out and is tempered by the friction and heat between those two forces within each state's experiment with democracy.
The Republic thing seemed like a good idea at the time, but people were different then and now it's a war out there. A crisis!
The EPA, with assistance from the NEA and a few other alphabet agencies, are finishing a new ruling that these experiments are an environmental hazard that causes global warming or climate change, not sure which yet, and we will soon be made to cease and desist all such activities.
"They" have decided that life in this wing of Schoolhouse Earth is to go under lockdown...for the children, who will inherit what we've created and what to think about it. And us.