Photograph Source: Sizzlipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0

The problem of centralized power

The United States is broken, and it’s time to think about what comes next.

Images of the White House East Wing demolition that have filled our eyes in recent days are a visual expression of a broader reality. The constitutional order of the U.S. is shattered. A lawless president backed by a feckless Congress and a Supreme Court tipped far to the right has upset what balance of powers remained under the constitutional system. That he could order the destruction of a national landmark with no public notice or review to build his ballroom signals his dictatorial intent.

But the roots of this run far deeper, to the Constitution itself. The U.S. started as a loose alliance of states under the Articles of Confederation. They had significant autonomy. But the financial classes centered in the large Northeast cities had a big problem with that. They were owed war debts and demanded payment in gold and silver. But states, where a measure of democracy existed, wanted to use paper money. When farmers in western Massachusetts staged Shay’s Rebellion against taxes needed to pay the debts, the ruling classes were alarmed. Led by Alexander Hamilton, they convened the Constitutional Convention to create a powerful federal government that could control the states and further expansion on the western frontier.

Over the century to come, the federal government mounted military campaigns to conquer the natives, and subsidized railroad construction. These were crucial to build a continental empire. Once that was filled out, the U.S. moved out into the world to build the greatest global empire in history, sustained by the centralized federal power created by the Constitution.

Power has been centralizing in the U.S. for its entire history, to the point we have reached today where a president........

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