Like the EU, we are a federation of member countries. The US has 50 member countries. Over the decades we’ve lost that perspective and tend to see them more like counties in a state, rather than sovereign countries.
But they are. Mostly. Just like France and Germany.
We really need to get back to that perspective. There is so much stuff the FedGov sticks its fingers in that are none of its business.
The problem is, we no longer live in a world where most people lived their entire lives without venturing more than 100 miles from where they were born.
I prefer to call them independent states, but your analogy works. The fascist-democrats have federalized the entire nation, with the exception of the District of Columbia, yet they are now working on that.
It seems that conservatives who wanted the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the state legislatures were just doing so because the state legislatures at this time happen to be more conservative than the state courts or executive branches.
Similar arguments are made regarding a desire to repeal the 17th Amendment: currently if all state legislatures voted along party lines then the senate would be solidly Republican.
But if the 17th Amendment were repealed and the Supreme Court had given preference to state legislatures in election matters, then over time the Dems would make a more concerted effort to gain control of the state legislatures.
Then every layer of government would be ruled by a single party and we would truly be a nation of provinces rather than a federation of countries.
And just like the EU would function better with separate monetary systems. (England never was part of Euro) So would our states. The Fed Reserve/unconstitutional wage taxes/Fiat money, dominates the political process.