"Could a localized economy and military protect itself from invasion? Not as well as our current system, but fear is a prime motivator for politicians and the modern state, stirred up to scare their population into supporting more government authority, increased taxation, and building up a military. In other words, the threat of an invasion of American soil is exaggerated both today and in this hypothetical proposal.
"Since Lincoln’s time, Americans have not experienced a government that is truly of and by the people—one based on consent and choice. Instead, we have faced a top-down government characterized by forced obedience and federal supremacy; a system that is destructive to the principles of self-government and replaces them with centralized bureaucracies that increasingly abuse their power, become more entrenched, and exploit ordinary citizens. Attempting to work within the system of national parties will never get us anywhere if we desire self-government. We must flip the system on its head, and cannot fight their way on their chosen field under their assumptions; we must change tactics. We must abolish the great political evils of our day, centralization and national political parties. This can only work by empowering local leaders to resist top-down enforced conformity and oppression.
"I would like to present an “end goal” and a political scenario that could restore self-governance to Americans and undo the evils ingrained in our original system and imposed on us by Lincoln and all those who came after.
Restore States’ Rights?
"I have been a big advocate for decentralized power, which in our American context has been connected to “states’ rights.” Giving choice back to the people of the states, and allowing them to decide their own affairs rather than having decisions imposed at the federal level, is always a good thing. But it no longer carries the same meaning and purpose or brings the same results as it once did. The early American colonies, and later the states, had similar religion, culture, and thus politics. Each state was made up of largely coherent blocs of like-minded people. Today the states have become much more diverse. Changes in politics, culture, racial demographics, beliefs and far more besides have caused a rupture in the localized “old-fashioned” way of life that kept coalitions of similar people together. People now seek to “find themselves,” travel the country, leave for job opportunities elsewhere or go to college across the nation, and families are separated and displaced. The population drift and overall increase make managing these states as blocs of like-minded people impossible.
"Texas has a population of over 31 million people. The entire population of the United States at ratification of the Constitution was under three million! It took until the Civil War before the population of all the states together equaled that of Texas today. If we had told the people at the time of the ratification of the Constitution, or as the Civil War commenced, that 31 million people would be forced to live under the same state government, they would lock us up in an insane asylum. You cannot manage that many people under one state government." . . . More...

