Politics Are Local

America has always had certain divisions.

Even when we were colonies under England we might have been unified because we were all on this continent but our origins and evolutions were very different.

Yes we sort of united to defeat a common enemy, England, but it took us a while to form a constitution and in that document we added the Bill of Rights because we didn't trust each other very much.

Our earliest divisions were central government vs states right.  This evolved partly because of slavery as the slave states argued for states rights while opinions generally swung against slavery overall.

We had a bloody civil war but it might have ended formal slavery but it didn't end the conflict.

In fact, in many ways, once reconstruction ended the states enjoyed significant freedom.

It took the great depression and the subsequent world war for the federal government to rise again.

The country once again untied against a common enemy, Communism, and in doing so we saw significant trends toward centralized Government.

We are seeing a new crisis in which the efforts towards nationalized policies is running up against some opposition.

It seems fairly obvious that many of the issues are national in scope but this creates resistance.

Since our constitution has built in safeguards for the States (the Senate, the Electoral College), the issue has to be fought locally.

You can't just tell them one way is better, you have to convince them.

All politics are local after all.