Elephants in 50 Rooms

   The central theme of American history since the Civil War has been the rise in power of the Federal Government against the power of the states. Historians have rewritten our history with the lie that America has always been a nation, even before the rebellion against Britain, and that it is now a nation with a national government in Washington. It is not necessary to go into all the details of the lie. It has bloomed into a pageant of nationalism in the lines of hundreds of writers over the generations whose corrupted views will collapse and dissolve before the eyes of anyone who reads without prejudice the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution. But the lie has done its damage. The 50 states of the American union in Americans’ eyes have no more power and prestige than county governments. It is as if the states have been reduced to a state of political worthlessness. Are they right? Let’s see if we can find any worth in our states.

   I count at least 7 things any state must pay for with its tax revenues. It must pay for an army to defend it. It must pay  diplomats to represent it globally. It must pay  for public education. It must pay for police and fire services. It must pay for health programs. It must pay for the expense of running a retirement system. In our states either the Federal Government or local town and city governments pay for these 7 services. Our state governments pay little or nothing. In addition to the taxes they receive on individual and business income and other taxes, they receive grants of monies for state projects from the Federal Government although Washington of course gets no monies from state revenues. States do pay for courts and the state legal system and pay for prisons and a small state police force. But the court system is backed up by a federal court system and the police system by the FBI, the federal police, for which the state governments pay nothing. International airports in states are funded by Washington and state customs duties and the US Coast Guard are run and paid for by Washington. Each state has representatives elected to the Congress in Washington for whose election, salaries and services it pays nothing.

   Historians have belittled states for years aiding centralizing political forces.Our states have taken every kind of political and  legal hit but they have rolled with the punches and are on their feet alive and with billions of dollars to spend to benefit their citizens. Even with reduced sovereignty, which the Supreme Court has the power to revert, they still have more sovereignty than the central government and they are in a better position financially to do good works than foreign fully sovereign states. Our states’ citizens are totally loyal to the Washington government, whose strength guarantees their strength, so the unity of the union is not in doubt. The American states have pockets stuffed with money since many of the necessary government activities in states are aided or paid for by federal and local taxes. The states have big full pockets and they should go on a spending spree. We Americans should wake up and see at last the elephants in 50 rooms.

Daniel McNeill