The article “The continuing fall of federalism” by George Will of the Washington Post addresses the topic of federalism in the United States political system. This article shoots at the philosophy of federalism, which is basically the political relationship between the federal government which is separated into three separate branches and the 50 or so separate state governments. The federal government includes the U.S. Congress-the House and the Senate; the presidency-the president, vice president, and cabinet members; the Supreme Court. When George Will states the “fall” of federalism he is referring to the failure of these systems of government to function with one another and the corresponding state governments. George Will’s article is intended to tell his opinion to the members of the federal goverment and the people of the United States.
George Will’s main argument is that senators shouldn't be elected by a higher state official in the event that there is a senate vacancy. Under the philosophy of federalism a senate vacancy would be filled by an electoral vote by the states constituents. Republicans Russ Feingold (WI) and John McCain (AZ) were chief supporters of a federal law passed in congress known as the Feingold-McCain Act. This act regulates the financing of political campaigns. This aids to the fact of upholding federalism because in the event that a particular official was financially compensated to elect a senator to fill a vacant senate seat, the senator would still have to win the overall election by the people, and not the election by the paid-off higher official. A current example of this corruption, highlighted by George Will is the Blagojevich-Burris “scandal”. I certainly agree with the idea of maintaining federalism to protect the people and prevent political scandals. In some areas of politics we certainly are due for a change, but in other areas it benefits us to stick to the ideas of our past framers. This is one of those areas.
