Federalism is what saves our Democracy from The Man Who Would Be King

Pogo’s “we have met the enemy and he is us” is the observation that urban Liberals will understand as theirs now that the meddlesome Washington they created under FDR does under Trump the contrary actions to their will they had previously done unto rural rubes.  Our forefather when drafting the Constitution invented Federalism, the sharing of powers between the States and the Central Government. Southern obstructionists called it States Rights. Now that the obstructionists have taken over Washington it is time for Progressives to use the very same argument for their local efforts. For example if California should decide to provide comprehensive health care and sanctuary protection for the immigrant population that fuels its economy then it should disentangle its funding from the central web that holds it back by reasserting the rights of States never ceded to the central government by the Constitution. But under this arrangement California can not inflict its progressive agenda on other States, such as Kansas for example, which resist it. This distributed power of the Constitution is a unique gift that saves our Democracy from the autocrat Donald Trump who otherwise is The Man Who Would Be King.