[efitz]

It’s a feature, not a bug. The United States federal government was set up as a representative republic, not a democratic republic, and not a democracy. We are supposed to be a federation of fairly-independent state governments with just enough federal scaffolding to keep the peace between the states. We were not set up with the intention of having a do-everything federal government ruling over the states.

[baubino]

This exactly. But the country never figured out how to deal with one state’s laws conflicting with another state’s laws (see the Fugitive Slave Act for example). The lack of resolution around conflict between the states (which remained unresolved even after a civil war was fought over it) is partly why the federal government began to grow as it took on the role of enforcing laws (like desegregation) that certain states would not.

[Nursie]

> not a democracy

Democracy comes in many flavours and it's very hard to see the US federal system as outside of that when it is composed of elected representatives.

It's not a direct democracy, it's not a democracy where each vote counts the same, but it certainly falls within the very wide definition of democracy -

"a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives."

[mothballed]

OK but the constitution effectively cannot be amended now (the last one, in the early 90s, took 202 years to pass [no not a typo]) and we're stuck with what we have. The population also isn't even remotely good with the powers restrained by the 10th amendment and hasn't been since at least the 1930s and maybe even before that, and there is zero chance the court changes that.

So what is next. It seems the only option is to just use the courts to re-interpret the constitution, so that things like growing your own wheat is "interstate commerce" and so that stuff like a post-86 machinegun isn't an arm even within the context of being a member of (by federal statute) the unorganized militia.

[efitz]

Repeal the 17th amendment - popular election of senators - and all of a sudden it gets much easier for states to amend the Constitution in ways they want.

Popular election of senators has been a disaster, it essentially turned to the Senate from a deliberative body into a pure partisan body like the House.

[johnnyanmac]

well, I'm never a fan of "this is hard so lets break/bend the rules" as a justification.

The constitution still can be amended. But congress has been in gridlock for 30 years so we can't even get over the first hurdle. Lets work on fixing that gridlock and then we can review if 38 states signing on is too big a burden. It was already a Herculean task convincing 10/13 states to accept the Bill of Rights.

[huhkerrf]

>the last one, in the early 90s, took 202 years to pass [no not a typo]

I mean, it's not a typo, but it's also misleading. It wasn't an active campaign for 202 years. It was largely forgotten for most of that time.

[scoofy]

Republic, res publica, means state power comes from the people.

Democracy, dēmos kratos, means state rule comes from the people.

They mean the same damn thing. They are just two different words that mean not ruled by monarchs.

[IAmBroom]

Only if you believe "violet" and "mauve" are both the same thing, because they both mean "purple".

[jdsully]

Wickard V Filburn is simply bad law... The federal government has way too much power and MUCH more than was ever intended. Its not a feature it is indeed a bug. One caused by the Supreme Court.

[johnnyanmac]

>The federal government has way too much power and MUCH more than was ever intended. Its not a feature it is indeed a bug.

we got bigger and thus we got permutational orders of issues arising as a result. We had to redo the articles of confederation within 20 years of their drafting and that was with 13 states.

Bug or feature, I see it as an inevitability as we grew to 50 states and multiple territories that the federal government would need a stronger hand today than in 1787. Of course, that hand shouldn't be bypassing every section of the constitution to serve the federal government itself. These are the exact fears that caused Shay and Whiskey way back in the day coming to fruition.