Parting Notes

Our nation was founded because the greatest political minds of the time had grown weary of the constant assault on their liberties by a powerful, unresponsive national government. When they threw off the yoke of colonialism, they tried to create a government that could never enslave its people. The system they created was a federalist system which recognized the ultimate power of the individual over the two major levels of government designed to serve their needs--the national and state governments. Over the years, driven largely by good intentions, this system has been almost completely obliterated. Special interest groups have lobbied for more and more social programs--administered by the national government--and this has placed significant power in the hands of a relatively small handful of elected officials and bureaucrats. The situation that exists today is very similar to the situation faced by the patriots that founded our nation. At this point, we are susceptible to almost any law or regulation that the national government might choose to impose upon us--and unlike the past, there is no counterweight of powerful state governments to stand up for our interests. This work traces how this situation came to be and proposes some remedies for righting the wrongs. Federalism is more than a term from the past, it is a real safeguard for the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died for. We owe it another look--before the process moves so far forward it can never be reversed.