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Washington is divided because it has abandoned federalism

By Philip Klein
Published August 14, 2014 10:00pm ET
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Washington is divided because it has abandoned federalism
From top right: James Madison, fourth president and an author of the Federalist Papers (Image via iStock); bottom left, U.S. postage stamp honoring Alexander Hamilton, another Federalist Papers author and later first secretary of the Treasury (iStock); John Jay, another of the Federalist authors and later first chief justice of the U.S., in 1794 portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart (portrait hangs in National Gallery of Art; Image via Wikimedia Commons). Background Image: Title page of The Federalist, Volume 1, as published by John Tiebout in 1799 (Image via Library of Congress). (Collage: Washington Examiner)

It may sound pedestrian to point out, but it’s critical to restate why it’s so important that our nation is called the United States of America, and not simply America.

The full name emphasizes that the Founders viewed the nation not as one monolithic entity but as a union of sovereign entities delegating limited powers to a central government.

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Congress Federalism Liberals Philip Klein