Some have said that we are witnessing a Second American Revolution, but this misses the mark. A better word would be “reformation” because what we really want is for the federal government to be reformed to the original intent of the Constitution. The problem is all knotted in Washington DC, with the federal government. The intent of federalism is to divide power and and functions between multiple levels of government. What we have been seeing for the past hundred years has been the concentration of power in Washington DC and the gradual erosion of federalism. If we are reforming the federal government then we would necessarily mean reestablishing federalism. We need a Federalist Reformation.

What we are seeing, however, is not a Federalist Reformation. Rather, we are seeing the political landscape becoming very conductive to a Federalist Reformation. We are all against higher taxes and government intrusion. Those are very general notions and so long as those are the ideas then what we can expect to happen is very simple. A Republican revolution that sees taxes cut and assorted changes are made, but the underlying problem will not have been addressed.

If a man does not like his local laws then he can move a few miles down the road and live in another township. If a man does not like the laws of his state then he may elect to move to some other state that is more conductive to his own pursuit of happiness. If, however, a man does not like the laws of the nation then where can he go? This is why  our nation is becoming increasingly divided. The people of Massachusetts may decide for themselves to have massive social programs and the people of South Dakota may decide not to. Neither infringes upon the other. But when so many laws are passed at a federal level then both sides impose on each other. This is the root of the problem.

In order to have a Federalist Reformation we need to correct the imbalance of power between the state and the federal governments. This article suggests ten amendments to the Constitution that would do a great deal towards achieving this goal. (I would also include an amendment that reverses the 17th Amendment with a mechanic to insure Senate seats do not remain vacant.) The result would serve to shrink the federal government and bring about the states taking back issues that should always have been theirs.

But I am unsure that that is what we’ll see. More likely what we’ll see is another Republican revolution as stated, but for the structure that allows the federal government to grow under both Republicans and Democrats to remain in place. In so many election cycles the same problems would compound and we will be left where we are today.

It would be better for our republic if we do this right the first time, but it will be ever so harder to do. The progressive movement has a century of momentum in growing the federal government and it will be ever so loath as to have their gains reversed in total. They are used to being slowed down or kept at bay. It will take every mother’s son to do it, but what we need is to reform our government to the ideas of federalism our Republic was built upon.