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.

Unequal Treatment

If you consider the history of this country and try to decide what America is you might have a problem.

We have always had divisions between different world outlooks and even erupted into a deadly civil war because of them.

Are we in fact a melting pot or is a better analogy a buffet line of different choices?

From the very beginning the issues relate to the amount of power that should be invested in the Federal Government.

This is still the fundamental issue.

Are we a collection of 50 states with some shared interests or are we a single nation?

The answer is not clear.

Take education, something that we have historically treated as a local matter. However we switched it to a more national issue during the civil rights era as we realized not all citizens were being treated equally.

Recently we have seen some reversal of this allowing less federal oversight.

Should every citizen of this country be provided the same rights and opportunities or should it vary based on where you live?

If each State sets different standards it will obviously vary significantly.

Take creationism, a religious theory that is not based on any actual scientific evidence but espoused in bible.  Should it be taught as an alternative to evolution, a scientific theory that is nearly universally agreed to?

It really wasn't that long ago that unequal treatment was a routine thing in many states.

Has it in fact gone away?