Educated observers of the United States like to talk about federalism, that is, the relationship between the Federal Government of the United States and individual states. Many wax poetic about the states as laboratories of the democratic process. Let's end such talk right now. Permanently. There are no more states as meaningful legislative entities. What Lincoln began with the Civil War, and Roosevelt refined with the New Deal, has been finished by the post World War II federal government that has a program for absolutely everything, from child health care to high school homework. The federal government may be broke, but the steady stream of money from the US Treasury to the states continues to flow, even if the feds must keep an extra shift on just to print enough of those phony bucks. The Constitution may limit the power of the federal government, but failure of a state to adhere to even one bizarre federal regulation can mean loss of all federal aid. Since the states are equally broke, but unable to print their own money, they must tow the federal line, or lose the federal aid to which they have become highly addicted. The result? There ain't no states. There are jurisdictions where a local government functions by sufferance of Washington, but the states can no longer do ANYTHING if the feds object.
End of song. End of states. Why bother with the fiction? Have a nice day.
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