Lessons in Rationality

It never ceases to amaze me how much push back there is to decentralized government. By this I mean, the predominant political push focuses on governance and guidance and subsidization from the US Congress and the US Senate. In all candor, if a matter is important to me I would like to have as much influence on the vote as possible. Yet when you ask your Senator to put a bill to vote you're taking an issue and putting it into a court where you can only vaguely influence two out of a hundred people who get to make decisions on it. No matter what the possible issue is, I cannot imagine it being an easier sell nationally, across the vastly heterogeneous United States, than amongst the people of my State or County or City.

There's a flaw in the concept of centralized government and an obvious one at that. As a nation we're far too diverse in terms of economic, political and religious beliefs to institute any methods nationwide which will appeal to everyone. In fact, a system that claims to favor all in truth obviously favors none.

If you look at Massachusetts as an example, they have been able to, with far more meager tax collection from their people than the federal government is privy to, subsidize health care. Now, personally, I'm not in favor of health care subsidization as I think it is something of a band-aid for a larger more complex issue. But that aside, the point I'm driving at is that this is something the nation has been batting back and forth for a half century and it was passed in the state of Massachusetts. It was passed in Massachusetts because the political beliefs of the people of Massachusetts are far more like minded than those of the nation as a whole. That's why we have a federation, for that very reason and its a shame that people forget that.