Historically Ironic Name: Federalists
Here, I propose a name that would make the historically minded laugh just enough to make it stick, is not presently in use (to the best of my knowledge), and could potentially unite people of many political persuesions.
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Posted January 17, 2006
Here's a crazy idea for a national party that could unite a lot of different people behind the idea of getting the federal government off our backs: The Federalist Party.
Basically, the idea is as follows. There are a lot of different interests that are strong enough to go so far as to found their own party: environmentalism (Greens), alternative to the big two (Independent), taxes and constitutional limitation (US Taxpayers), liberty (Libertarians), and more. I believe the case could be made that each of these divergent groups could better demonstrate the viability of their (and our) principles if they were highly successful in states where they are concentrated, and the federal tax and regulatory burden were lower. Of course, as Libertarians, we believe that liberty would win out as the superior idea, but these other groups could potentially believe the same thing about their ideas.
So, all of these different third parties could unite at the federal level under a single name: The Federalist Party. Their unifying purpose: States Rights. This would allow different groups to try out their ideas at the state level unimpeded by excessive federal regulation and taxation. The Free State Project, for example, could benefit massively from such a program, but so could the liberals of my native California.
In addition, by calling it "States Rights" we would leave the ideological door open for certain groups to use the federal government to address violations of one state by another (for example, air, water, or other dispersed pollution running over state borders).
There would be no requirement that they cease competing at the state and local levels. The idea behind this is a sort of "cease fire" at the federal level, to allow all of us the room to attempt to implement our visions at the state level. The major hurdle is whether people are emotionally capable of working hand-in-hand at the federal level with people who are arch-nemeses at the state and local level.
As to the irony: our opponents are the old guard, increasingly in favor of a unitary government, in the Democratic and Republican parties. Or, in other words, the "Democratic-Republicans!"
Okay, you can laugh now. 21 Comments
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