A few years ago I started pushing a meme I now strongly believe: The US is like the EU, except we have a military.
That is, we are 50 “mostly sovereign” countries that are members of a single federation. That federation (the FedGov) exists to provide protection from enemies from outside, protect member countries from each other, and handle situations when stuff crosses borders between member countries.
Beyond that, they should leave us all the hell alone. One writer once said that before the IRS existed, the only contact most citizens had with the FedGov was the mailman.
Any way, my thinking is of the founders. We are a federation of membership nations which control virtually everything that goes down within their own borders.