The American political system is united by its disunity. That is its genius. There is at work in it a successful union of states because none of them are fully sovereign like nation-states and its central government in Washington has neither full sovereignty nor a location in any state. No doubt the men who created the Constitution and the men in the 13 states who ratified it had no perfectly clear idea of the full meaning of their commitment. States still acted as sovereign states and Washington acted as a state even though it was not a state. 11 states seceded from the union and declared themselves again sovereign even though they had sworn allegiance to a Constitution that limited their sovereignty. Abraham Lincoln used his exclusive power over war granted by the Constitution to make war on seceded states just as though he were the leader of a state. Non-sovereign states decided they were sovereign and the Washington government which is not a state and is not located in a state acted as though it were a state. History shaked and rattled the American system and even tried to destroy it in the Civil War but it held because it was based on unity out of disunity and even the discord of 3 years of war could not break its unity.
The two political parties we observe at conventions nominating candidates for president have their origin in the reality that there is no such thing in America as one sovereign government with full power. Each party, Democrat and Republican, dreams of holding the governor’s offices of the 50 states, majorities in state legislatures, the presidency in Washington, and a majority in Congress. It is a dream that would unify everything from the bottom up and from the top down. But the disunity that the Constitution sets up always crushes the dream to make America like other states. None of our 50 states are sovereign and our central government is neither sovereign nor a state when dealing with American citizens. Political freedom, real political freedom, does not consist in setting up states with full power but in cutting down their power so that they can concentrate on fulfilling the dreams of humanity for good works rather than on their unholy lust for full power.
Daniel McNeill
Daniel McNeill’s novella The End of All Beginnings is available at
Read it free on Kindle with a free app or buy it on Kindle for $1.99.
Also available as a book for $5.99.
A powerful and very dramatic exploration of love and relations between
a 70-year-old man and four women, two sisters 18 and 19, their mother
46, and a lesbian friend 22. It is full of well-written dialogues between the five
In various situations including sexual relations. The drama moves fast right
from the start and it is impossible not to read it as quickly as possible (it
can be read in less than three hours} to an ending that is totally unexpected
and explosive. A complex drama that moves with its own momentum towards
one liberating ending to all its beginnings.
Daniel McNeill
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