Back to School
Sometimes I have to be a history teacher. I remember it was in week two of American Government class that we discussed “Federalism.” Lets go back to High School and analyze the Constitution and our governmental structure.
We hear a lot of talk today about “Federalism”. The President says he isn’t intervening in the various state responses to the corona-virus crisis because of “Federalism”. He claims that it is the state government’s responsibility to react, not the National government. The National government is only there for “support”. You hear Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, and Vice President Pence saying the same things – perhaps to “get along” with the President.
Countries around the world are confused by this American response. In so many ways we act as “one nation” (under God, indivisible) in the eyes of the world. We respond as the US Army, not State armies. We trade as the US government, not California and Rhode Island. And we control our borders, and much of our national financial life as a nation, not single state units. From the outside, the United States seems to be responding in a fragmented, disassociated and confused manner. That doesn’t occur with most issues.
One Nation
We have all heard the phrase, “…one sovereign nation of fifty sovereign states.” It all goes back to the years after the American Revolution, and the nature of “the deal” made between the former colonies when they organized together.
The original organizing document, the Articles of Confederation, was a “weak central government” document. The power, most notably the power to raise money through taxation, was granted to the states, not the central government. So, when the Revolutionary armies were in the field, begging for resources, the Second Continental Congress was in Philadelphia (after the British left) begging the states for money.
And while the armies won the Revolution, as much in spite of the Congress than because of it, the weaknesses of Confederation became even more glaring as they attempted to make a nation. Thirteen kinds of money, thirteen forms of taxation, thirteen border regulations: it made it impossible for the nation to function, or ultimately, to survive.
Hot Summer in Philly
The “Founding Fathers” gathered in Philadelphia to fix the problem. They weren’t necessarily doing it out of the goodness of their hearts; they were planters and traders, ship owners and merchants, and they directly felt the economic impact of the failure to unify. So, without any mandate to do so, they undertook the writing of a new governing document “out of whole cloth” instead of revising the Articles.
They wrote the Constitution, carefully compromised to create a powerful but carefully limited Federal government. From the very first words, “We The People” they bypassed the powerful state government structures. They spoke of making, “…a more perfect union,” one that could govern a nation, not a squabbling bunch of states.
And at the end, in Article VI of the seven-article original, they put the following words:
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
What the Founding Fathers couldn’t do in ink, Abraham Lincoln copied in blood. The American Civil War was the final arbiter of “state’s rights”. The “National Supremacy” that was agreed to in Philadelphia, was set in the stone markers in the military cemeteries of Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg and Petersburg.
A Federation
We as a nation have established that every citizen eighteen years or older, man, woman, black, white, has the right to vote. We have established a national speed limit, from time to time. Those of us who “can’t drive fifty-five” remember it well (who would think you could quote James Madison and Sammy Hagar in the same piece). We control opioid drugs, and we set national pollution standards. In fact, the Federal government is right now suing California for setting more stringent standards than the rest of the nation.
There is nothing about “federalism,” nothing about the Constitution that would prevent the President of the United States and the Congress from acting in the face of this existential crisis. Could the President quarantine the nation? With the cooperation of Congress, he could. Could he order folks to shelter in place, or declare national martial law? If the corona-virus doesn’t fit the concept of “invasion,” spreading death and destruction throughout the land, what would? And if there is no other wording that satisfies the need to take a National stand – how about these:
“To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution”. Art 1 – Section 8
Would could be more “necessary and proper” than a NATIONAL response to this existential crisis. We need not hide behind “Federalism” to put the “blame” or responsibility on the Governors and States. Our Federal government has the power, authority, and obligation to act.
