As the story goes, hip-hop artist LL Cool J, surveying the rise of flashier, aggressive, violence-minded gangsta rappers, confided to his grandmother that he felt that his career was in decline. The critics, he believed, just didn’t care for his style of music anymore. Granny’s advice was simple: “Oh baby, just knock ’em out!” LL turned advice from Granny into a Grammy-winning song, “Mama Said Knock You Out,” relaunching his career.
American federalism is similarly pressed on all sides these days by unfriendly foes, self-described progressives and conservatives who have nothing in common beyond a conviction that vast powers administered by smart people like them in Washington, D.C., are the only corrective for America’s course. While LL Cool J may have had competitors who were more popular with fans, however, federalism’s competitors are anything but. Indeed, as D.C. power has grown, public confidence in major institutions has collapsed, particularly those entrenched in D.C.
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