by Thaddeus Heuer, now at Brown University
Essay Topic: Write the headline newspaper article for January 1, 2015
Still the United States?
In 1995, Pete Wilson, governor of a unified California, said, "We declare to Washington that California is a proud
and sovereign state, not a colony of the federal government." What sounded then like political rhetoric is quickly becoming reality. Nationally, the United States has been weakened in the past few years by
increased regional loyalty. The recent split of California into three separate states is possibly just the beginning of a bitter "cold war" between regions. John Engle, an expert on Western American affairs,
Believes this strife began in earnest after the 1996 election, when the GOP took control of all three branches of government. "As states started to fight for federal deregulation and for control over programs like
AFDC, Social Security and Medicare, the autonomy they received emboldened them. Now they'd like to extend their control into areas like the Department of Defense, which could literally prove explosive."
Sarah
Reinhart, a public policy consultant with the Institute for Unity, agrees. "The irony of this entire situation is that none of our elected officials are thinking for the benefit of the nation as a whole," she
said. "Each representative and senator naturally wants the most money and prestige for his or her district, and we essentially have a fifty-seven state bidding war." There are those who feel this new state
power is good, however. "Texas is bigger than most European countries," said Sen. Jim Houlihan, R-TX. "Why should we get only two votes in the Senate and then be forced to accept all these Mexican
immigrants? I say keep the power in Texas and keep the people from Rhode Island out of our business."
States in the Northeast, already worried about how their geographical size may affect future developments,
have banded together in a "Federal Unity Alliance". While the Northeast FUA (and the one created by several Midwestern states lacking large populations) appears to support the federal government, state
officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said the Alliances were actually created to ward off possible arable land shortages in the Northeast and military manpower shortages in the Midwest. "I'll stand by
the federal government," one FUA governor said, "but I don't know if I can trust my colleagues to do the same."
Some Democratic legislators are working to halt the wave of power and money to the
states. "What happens if there's a forest fire in Wyoming, or an earthquake in Oregon, or a flood in Missouri?" asked Sen. David Wilbraham, D-PA. "There won't be a Federal Emergency Management Agency to
bail out these states, no pool of money to rebuild them." Rep. Cleopatra Kifamo, D-BR, ranking minority member on the House Working Americans Committee, fears environmental and labor laws are already being
undermined.
"States used to welcome federal control in these areas because it prevented other states from setting lower standards and luring business away," she noted. "Now with state control of those
areas, environmental protection laws and workers' rights are being eroded for profit."
In a search for a historical precedent some point to "Democracy in America", written 180 years ago in 1830. Author
Alexis de Tocqueville felt that the keys to America's success were western expansion, decentralized government and personal responsibility. But with allegiance to a too large, too impersonal United States waning no one
foresees a rebirth of that free and unifying spirit. "Why should the United States be any different?" asked one Angolan diplomat. "Britain was once the ruler of the world. Now with the loss of Scotland
and Northern Ireland, they're nobody. America's time has come and gone."
