I was always about checking the power of overmighty governmental authorities. When state governments were out of control, I supported federalism and the Constitution. When Hamilton started using the powers of the new federal government in a way I hadn’t contemplated, I became an advocate for states’ rights. Some people accused me of changing sides, but it wasn’t true; I was just responding to a new and different factual situation. That’s what reasonable people do when conditions change.
I always thought that making fundamental changes through government should be hard; most change should be evolutionary and driven by the private sector. It should require a lot of effort and compromise to build coalitions large enough to get majorities in Congress. That’s what Federalist #10 was trying to say. There is a big difference, however, between difficult and impossible.
The combination of the filibuster–an innovation that was unknown in 1787–along with a partisan Supreme Court has made significant legislation virtually impossible. Since power abhors a vacuum, the executive branch and the judiciary have encroached on the powers of Congress in order to get anything done. That isn’t constitutional government; it’s government by slapdash work-around. It needs to be changed as soon as possible if the objective is to restore limited, but effective government in Washington.