[allendale]

Sorry but you are talking rot. The same sort of rot that people who smoke marijuana babble. “The country has grown too big for a powerful, centralized Federal government.” Really ? then perhaps Americans should forget about this silly concept of a national consensus and laws that promote such nationalism and culture. If you accept this bizarre definition of voluntary Federalism, then you really should be disappointed that the South lost the Civil War. Or perhaps you should carefully study the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire and reflect on how ideals, practices and institutions were devolved and transformed. History does repeat because human nature does not change.

[Ken H]

“The country has grown too big for a powerful, centralized Federal government.”

allendale: Really ?

Me: Yes, really. Read the following from JR and don’t be a swamp-sucker =>

___________

“What is our mission? Free Republic is dedicated to reversing the trend of unconstitutional government expansion and is advocating a complete restoration of our constitutional republic.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/about.htm

[Wallace T.]

Your argument included false assumptions/innuendos: (1) that I am a user of marijuana; (2) that I am disappointed the South lost the Civil War. On the latter point, the Confederacy was far from a Jeffersonian paradise, and the Confederate regime was guilty of many of the same abuses, such as suppression of the press, imprisonment of dissenters, etc., that the Union did. The Confederates committed war crimes as bad if not worse than the Union did, e.g., mass execution of Union supporters in Texas and the slaughter of black Union troops.

The role of the Federal government was strictly limited by the Founding Fathers to the specific role outlined in the Constitution. The purpose was to allow enough common grounds to foster a Federal union. Over the years, that Federal union devolved into a centralized government. The villain was not Lincoln,but Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and then Franklin Roosevelt and all his successors, with partial exceptions of Reagan and Trump.

What do you mean by "national consensus"? Do you mean unbridled democracy, depending on the whims of a majority? In 1918, there was a consensus for alcohol prohibition; by 1932, that consensus was gone. In 1990, not even the most liberal state recognized homosexual unions. By 2015, thanks to the Supreme Court, "gay marriage" is the law of the land.

Given the combination of massive Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American immigration, the loss of a Biblically based moral code due to the rise of secularism, and the corruption of the educational system and the entertainment media, America does not have anything like a common culture. Without a common culture, there can be no national consensus. A return to the limited Federal government as intended by the Founding Fathers is a means to prevent either a authoritarian regime or the breakup of the Union.