The Union's victory in Civil War ended the proposition that states that created the federal union could leave it (or short of that, nullify unconstitutional encroachments on their sovereignty by the federal government as Madison and Jefferson argued in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions) destroyed the most important structural restraint on the ability of the federal government to exceed its legal powers
Once that check (the vertical check and balance of the sovereignty of the states was far more important in the Founders minds than the horizontal checks and balances between the 3 branches of the federal government) was destroyed...the ultimate fate of the US was written...ultimately, what is to stop the federal government from abusing its powers? Most Americans today are so ignorant of the Constitution, they are unaware that there are any limitations on the power of the federal government
You folks are great. You see the supreme hypocrisy and pandering that defines our government, and you recognize the explicit meaning of the Constitution has been ignored for generations. The question becomes: will a new breed of patriots arise that remembers and restores the Framer's original intent? No doubt we've been under the grip of socialists for at least sixty years, but can we at last re-teach our countrymen the value of liberty and the personal responsibility it demands?