Limited government: USA population at founding vs. current state population

When the USA government was created the founders wanted a limited federal governement with states and the people keeping most powers.  The population of the whole USA then (3.9M) was about the same as an average state now (WI is 5.6M).  Would our founders now suggest that states also be limited with local county government and people keeping most powers?  The USA would be quite different if both federal and state were severely limited and most power was local.  Each person has much more access to their county board than they have access to their state or federal representitives so each person would have more say about how they are governed.

Population numbers from:

http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/table-16.pdf

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55000.html

I am 2^5 today

I am 2⁵ today.

Have you any wool?

Anna's version of "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" includes:

One for my master, one for my pastor

Anna Quote

Anna (age 5) said:

I wonder how princesses can be so pretty when they don't have any tights on.

Limited federal government means less lobbying influence

If the federal government doesn't control education then there would be no education lobbyists in Washington D.C. and lobbyist would have a much harder time lobbying the thousands of school boards or even the 50 state governments.  In effect it would take influence from lobbyists and give it back to the people.  The same is true for other areas of the federal government also. Limited federal government gives the power back to the people.

Imagine: Local control of schools

Imagine what it would be like if your local school was controlled locally instead of federally.  Instead of "one size fits all" (for the whole nation) your school would do what is best for your local needs.  How could central planning of education produce better education than local, customized planning?  If there are problems you could easily call up your local school board members but you can't very easily talk to the leaders in the Congress, White House, or Department of Education.

Will party opinions on the wars change?

Now that Democrats will be in charge of the wars will Republican support for the wars decrease because "the Democrats didn't handle them correctly" and Democrat support increase because "the wars are now being run correctly"?

Term limits

I am not sure that I think term limits are a good thing because they also limit the choices of the people. (Of course incumbents have advantages so that needs to be equalized.) Maybe a good compromise is to limit consecutive terms.

A federal officer is not eligible for re-election for a position after holding that position for the previous 8 consecutive years.

That would basically be in line current persidential term limits, would limit senators to 2 consecutive terms, and limit house representatives to 4 consecutive terms. It would not limit someone from holding those positions more -- they would just have to find something else to do for 1 session. It could encourage going back to the private sector.

Comments?

Nuclear fission questions

Instead of sending a neutron into an atom nucleus what would happen if a proton and electron (bonded together) were sent to the nucleous? Can only radioactive atoms be split? Can an atom be split and not produce (harmful) radioactivity? Would an ionized atom be easier to hit the nucleus?

Rally for the Republic

Yesterday I got to be a volunteer for the Rally for the Republic! It was a great event and as a volunteer I got to go backstage, see everyone up close, and shake a few hands! There is much more to say but I have to get caught up on my work. :-)