“If anybody has a bright idea as to how to get Federalism working again please share it with me.”
I wish I knew.
Federalism in the old school sense of it, with the American School of economics, is something that I certainly miss. The democrats are all for the spending aspects, but they have little interest these days in significant and meaningful spending projects designed to provide further economic integration of the states, like the federalists of old. Their spending seems to be focused primarily on paying off their supporters in the state and local governments.
Secondly, the dominant strain of leftism working within the democrat apparatus appears to be strongly opposed to such things as the general welfare and particularly opposed to any discussion of how we could make the United States a stronger and more vibrant nation.
The general welfare is never even considered; when watching many of Hillary’s speeches throughout the last year I was very much struck by the fact that all of her spending priorities were directed at very specific groups of people, and not the nation itself: she was gonna pay for your medical care, your kids tuition, your parents prescriptions. There is little interest in that which benefits all, total interest in appealing to the most self-centered and short-sighted needs of the electorate.
For more fun, if you ever run into a really zealous leftist who tries to pass off being highly informed about “the issues”, try this: ask him to name a good left-wing author who offers powerful ideas on how to make the US a stronger, more prosperous nation. Ask him what the left’s vision is for how the US can truly compete in an increasingly globalized, networked world. If you’re very, very lucky, you might get some random yammering about trade policy or investing in education or our kids (with no concrete idea what they are really after, other than more money.) That’s if you’re lucky.
Unfortunately, on the Republican side the memes of absolutely bizarre libertarian economic notions have absolutely taken over. The astonishing spread of many of the ideas of people like Ayn Rand is really quite breath-taking, resulting in all sorts of conservatives who view the free market as absolutely infallible, all government spending as bad, and who generally have absolutely no idea of the role of men such as Hamilton, Adams, and Clay and their ideas in the astonishing growth of the young American economy.
It’s also sadly apparent in even well-educated people with technical backgrounds, people who really should know better. Some of America’s most profitable and strategically important industries, such as information systems, software, aviation, aerospace, and several others would not be what they are today without the massive research funds directed their way by the Federal government. Any attempt to explain Silicon Valley or the Massachusetts tech sector – which left out the role of the Federal government – would be deceptively incomplete.
Federalism is dead. The common good is no longer fit for discussion. And no one gives a damn about the general welfare. We are basically left with fractured groups of voters crying out for handouts and established, antiquated industries seeking vast subsidies while pumping money into non-profit think-tanks which talk about the glories of the free market.
None of this is to say that the free-market is bad. But attempting to explain America’s dynamic growth solely through the free-market misses a very important point that in the old days the primary concern of the Federal government, and its spending priorities, were focused around increasing trade and interaction within the US via investment in infrastructure.
