The Articles of Confederation--Were They Really That Bad?

Perhaps (how’s that for a powerful beginning?) our national twin viruses (Trump and Corona) are actually performing a service for the country.  They are revealing to all of us here sitting at home the utter disfunction of the federal government, a body which can spend $738 billion on defense against imagined enemies, but is unable to buy face-masks for the doctors who are fighting a real (although invisible) enemy.  Could it be (there’s that powerful phrasing again) that D.C. has been for too long a magnet attracting power-hungry and money-grabbing (as well as power-grabbing and money-hungry) psychopaths?

In the 1950’s, Ike got Congress to build the Interstate Highway System (selling it as a national defense measure; the man was a soldier, but he was also a politician).  Since that time, other than a few TV shows about the FBI, the Federal Government has accomplished very little (oh, well, there was the Vietnam War, granted, that went well).  Perhaps (“perhaps” again?) it is time to gradually (I said gradually, gradually) institute a shift of power away from our all-mighty central government, along with its Imperial Presidency, back to the state and local governments (fat chance).  We could gently (gently!) tinker with the way our Constitutional government is functioning (or rather, not functioning) and take another look at that badly maligned constitutional antipasto— the Articles of Confederation.

Under the Articles, Congress was allowed to coin money but not levy taxes (If they wanted money, let them make it themselves).  There was no executive branch of government (which would displease television stations that depend on election year ad money for their survival).  The states were described as nothing more than “a firm league of friendship,” which everyone agreed had a nice, squishy sound to it.  “United States” was spelled “united states,” a verbiage supported by the typesetters union.  Canada was allowed to join the nation, but nobody else.  Instead of a president, each state would send in one person to form a governing counsel.  If no one from Canada wanted to come, they didn’t have to.

The Articles were of course superseded by the Constitution, whose framers never envisioned Jack Abramoff or warplanes with $872 toilet seats.  So, why don’t we begin dissembling this Rube Goldberg contraption known as our federal government, and rebuilt it using Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys (is this guy really that old?). 

Here’s a suggestion (just a suggestion from Mr. Shoot-from-the-Hip, Take No Prisoners) to all those idealistic young politicians hoping to get to Washington in order to clean up the mess and become the next Bobby or John or Elinor or Barack (Barack?): “Stay home, young man, young woman, just stay home!  There’s work to be done right here.”