Arguments Against Coercive Federalism

What is federalism? To most people (especially to the conservatives), federalism is basically the taking away of individual rights. Now, what is coercive federalism? Coercive federalism is simply a strong government that exercises tight control on the states. How does the government take a tight control on states? The government takes control by taking away an individual’s rights. This is what a coercive federalism means, and this is the now the type of government America has. However, it hasn’t always been this way; before the American government became a coercive federalism, it was a cooperative federalism. A cooperative federalism is where the government includes the states’ ideas when trying to solve a common problem. When a cooperative

federalism was America’s government, the states and the national government had a pretty close relationship. Now that the America government has adopted the coercive federalism, that close relationship has become almost no relationship. This coercive government has altered the state and nation government in two main areas: the American people have lost trust and respect for the national government.
Our first problem is the lost in trust.

The states are losing trust and confidence in the national government because of this coercive government. According to www.usatoday.com, a Pew Poll back in 2013 showed that just about half of the voters, stated that the government has become a bigger threat to their freedom. Why do they feel this way? They feel this way because the national government is trying so hard to control our everyday lives, and individuals want their privacy. The national government is trying to put in place several things such as; TSA scanners, Homeland Security, gun control laws, and even gun confiscation. These are just a few items that www.usatoday.com list as reasons of why people are beginning to view the government as an actual threat. In fact, Nate Silver, a New York Time blogger, believes that the American people don’t like the “insurance broker”. Nate Sliver noticed that there was a decline of trust in the government when there was an increase in the government spending.

(www.usatoday.com)
Another way that this coercive government has altered the relationship between state and government is through the loss of respect. It is human nature to lose respect for someone who is trying to completely run your life. This is why most of the American people have no respect for the government, because the national government is trying to make us subject to them. As I mentioned before the government is setting up systems that they can use to control us. Some of these new systems are able to track the average American citizen. Another reason why the American people have lost respect for the government is because of the amount of rights each individual person has lost. These rights are the first ten amendments of the Constitution: The Bill of Rights. (http://www.washingtonsblog.com). With our main rights being taken away and we are now able to be tracked, why would we respect the national government?
Since the relationship between the states and the government has been pulled way apart, what is going to happen?

People are going to start to rioting and protesting against laws. This has already begun to happen and is steadily getting worse. The American people do not like being controlled so they are going to take a stand for it, no matter how violent it may get. Just in the past few years, there have been protests all over the news about gun control, same sex marriages, abortions, and the police enforcement. These people, on both sides of these categories, all want one thing and that is their freedom and rights. The national government no longer includes the states when they are trying to solve a common issue. They don’t consider what each state suggests on fixing the problem. Instead, the national government has adopted the idea of coercive federalism and ruined the relationship the states and government used to

have.