The Big Picture thing to realize about the argument over States Rights versus Federal Power, is that it is actually all about access to tools.
That is, the people arguing one side or the other about this, are NOT doing so purely out of an esoteric, theoretical notion of having a sense of justice or freedom. They want things decided their way, because they have an agenda that is NOT immediately on the discussion table, which they think they can promote more readily, if they can first get everyone to grant them the local or national power that they want.
The real understanding to gain about professional politicians, is similar to gaining an understanding of the real motivation of professional salesmen of any kind. Even the most idealistic salesperson, who believes that the products they represent ARE the best on the market, still have as their strongest motivation, the commissions they will get from selling them.
A specific congressman might have a lot of influence in his on state while he’s only one amongst hundreds in Congress, so giving more powers to states might give him more power?
A somewhat related question : what percentage of the American population has lived all, or at least most, of their life in the same state?
A specific congressman might have a lot of influence in his on state while he’s only one amongst hundreds in Congress, so giving more powers to states might give him more power? As my brother said in a very different (military) context : “better be the big fish amongst the small fish that the small fish amongst the big fish”.
A somewhat related question : what percentage of the American population has lived all, or at least most, of their life in the same state?
Pretty much - all politics are local, as the saying goes. The calculus is a bit different for senators vs. congressmen, with the latter being far more focused on the small communities from which they are drawn. Senators tend to have less extreme politics ( left or right )in general because of that, but it is only a tendency.
As of 2008, 57%. 37% have never left their hometown.
The US has a history of liberal policies being imposed on conservative states by national entities (of all three branches) and not much in the reverse direction.
For this reason, state autonomy tends to be popular in conservative circles, even at the federal level.
Actually, this question brings up another very important facet of this discussion, that everyone should take note of.
That is, that “power” isn’t a single, simple thing.
Some members of the Federal Government want to transfer more “power” to the states, because what they are REALLY transferring, is RESPONSIBILITY (in other words, POLITICAL BLAME).
Other transferences of “power” are actually a sneaky way to transfer COSTS.
If you manage to arrange for the power over everything you are using, to be transferred to someone else, then THEY have to pay for it all, and THEY have to take on being woken up every time there’s a problem. The “power” isn’t the fun part.
Plus, as the GOP knows well, if you transfer as much as you can to the States, you can pretend that you’ve “saved huge amounts of money,” and can therefore cut taxes on all your friends. When everything goes to hell in the states, you’re covered, because “States Rights Means Never Having To Say You Give A Damn.” But you still get full pay.
But to answer seriously, I don’t think Trump has a plan, at least not one driven by a particular political ideology. He seems to be driven mostly by his own personal prejudices, and his overriding belief that Donald Trump is the greatest human being God ever created.
The people around him, though, are in many cases ideologically driven, and in some cases that ideology is states rights and small government. Which isn’t an ideology I subscribe to anyway, but if that’s what you want, I guess the question is, Is it worth the risk of all the damage Trump can do to the country?
Also, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Trump to reduce the power of the federal government, so long as he’s the one holding that power.
But gutting particular agencies whose purpose he doesn’t understand or appreciate, sure. So you know, if you don’t like clean air and water, or for our young people to be well educated, or for nuclear material to be handled safely . . .
The plan (whether directed by T and/or Bannon) seems to be to hamstring the Federal government and make sure that only Trump’s own handpicked personnel are in charge of what information reaches the public from the various agencies. The media will be villainized as untrustworthy, lying sewer rats and any remaining government employees who actually have valid information will be silenced, to make sure that the only message that gets out is that America is “great again” and everything is working like a well-oiled clock and don’t you worry your pretty head about the fact that pollution is rampant, health care more unavailable than ever, Medicare and Medicaid defunded, Social Security retirement age raised to 115, food contaminated, unemployment sky high, etc.
It really, really looks to me like Cheeto and/or his minions are definitely trying to derail various departments and keep that information from getting out as much as they can. This is scary, and even more scary is that so many Americans voted for this. Will they finally realize they made a mistake when government services are no longer available?
For now it seems T could dance the Macarena naked while pooping and signing an EO to release Charles Manson and 40% of the country would still insist he was doing a great job.
Are we talking Articles of Confederation? Or are we saying that Yes California ain’t no big thing, because all the states are going to be their own separate princedoms now?
We’ve talked about the Tenth Amendment before, and it’s still both a) pretty much the biggest piece of meaningless noise in the Bill of Rights, and b) logically opposite what “Tenthers” want:
If rights are fundamentally vested in the people, then they are* not *fundamentally vested in state governments and hyper-gerrymandered state legislators. The people should have the right to delegate some things to the states and others to the federal government, and whinging about constitutionally limited federal government shouldn’t mean a thing,
ETA: Also, you are projecting something you desire onto a political leader, which is a clue that you’re engaged in wishful thinking.
Whenever I hear a call for “state’s rights” I ask the next question - rights to do what exactly?
If history is any guide, the end product is mistreatment of those deemed as inferior, and eventually warring with neighboring states.
So, let’s say we give states the equivalent autonomy of countries. Next people would be clamoring for county/parish rights - because the state capitol is too far away and doesn’t address our local needs. Next it would be city/town/village rights - because the county doesn’t address our local needs. Turtles all the way down.
The politics is just a tool for Trump to keep his voters liking him. The reason Trump likes Putin is that he wants to be like Putin, he wants to be liked by tens of millions. The only way to achieve this is from the right. The GOP voters will have to reach for the inner racist and the hate for the federal government.
There is no road to take for Trump to get Democrats to like him.
There might have been, though. I don’t see Trump having much regard for the Republicans, they were just the easiest path. Under slightly different circumstances, I can see Trump’s nativist “immigrants-took-ur-job” message playing to working class Democrats and if that route had seemed more promising, he would have chased it.