McGrath, you're missing my point. I never suggested that "everything has to be done the same way everywhere." But the USA is one country; the Civil War decided that, to the extent that it wasn't already apparent to everyone. We are made up of "states" that used to have a lot of autonomy, different currencies, etc. But that was a long time ago. Moreover, the states' rights arguments often cut against effective government by either the Feds or the individual states. For instance, without uniform gun laws, people can easily purchase their firearms in the state with the least stringent controls -- which renders the efforts of the other states completely ineffective.

As for giving power to "some far away government" -- well, how far is too far? The world is a lot smaller now than it was when traveling from New York to Washington took weeks. And, in fact, it has most often been the states rather than the Feds who were the ones restricting individual rights, and the Feds had to come riding to the rescue to protect the rights the states were denying their citizens. Remember, the states' rights argument was the primary justification for maintaining slavery before the Civil War, and for maintaining Jim Crow segregation laws in the years since. If I were a black man in Mississippi in the 1950s, I'd take the "far away government" over the locals any day.