I agree that it took decades to get where we are; however, the majority of what the Federal government is doing should rest in the hands of the states.
Let’s go back to the Civil War (aka the War of Northern Aggression). On the surface it was about slavery, which was starting to wane; however, it was everything about the consolidation of power at a Federal level and the removal of States Rights.
Yes there would be a cacophony louder than the snowflakes raging in the streets if the government, in one fell swoop, ended all entitlements. But if we continue to succumb to the tyranny and allow the loss of liberty, we cease to exist as the land of the free.
The cause of the Civil War was simply secession. A small group within the Democrat party planned secession and to create a slave based economy. The Order of The Golden Circle was one such group but there were others.
In the 1850’s the United States was a one party Democrat controlled government. They wanted to promote a slavery based economy in the Midwest and the west through the Kansas Nebraska Act and other means.
The Republican Party which was founded in Wisconsin in 1854 in response to the Kansas Nebraska Act.
It was not slavery in the deep south but the proposed creation of a slave based economy in the Midwest and west that led to this formation. Many Midwestern small farmers and tradesmen including Lincoln's father had left the south because they felt it was difficult to get ahead in the slavery based economy.
The secession was planned and executed before Lincoln was elected. The confederate states seceded before Lincoln was nominated. In February 1861, Jefferson Davis stated that it was too late to compromise. Secession was completed.
With the exception of South Carolina, most southerners did not want their states to secede from the union. Secession was pushed rapidly by a small group of leading Democrats and not a result of a popular vote.
By late in the Civil War, the small group of Democrat politicians who had led the southern states into secession were extremely unpopular throughout the confederate states.