Ever since America was founded, its population has always struggled with the balance between national and local politics. A national government was favored because of its ability to maintain cohesiveness among the whole population, while local, smaller governments were favored in order to limit the powers of the national government and to prevent the tyranny the colonists faced before fleeing from Britain. While some Americans argue that states’ rights hold more importance over the power of the federal government, an “overall trend in American history shows the increase of dominance of local over national politics.” The dominance of the federal government is beneficial for American society because it is more efficient, more democratic, and
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Having laws passed among all fifty states also maintains unity among the country and keeps all states on the same level as far as important regulations go. Also, each state has the equal power to bring an issue to Washington in hopes that it becomes favorable among legislators as well. In a country where discrimination has been present in more than just a few ways, federalism allows for the continuity of rules that can be guaranteed to be withheld for all people of all …show more content…
Instead of settling for compromises like the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 where some states were ‘free states’ and some states were ‘slave states,’ nationalization gave Congress the power to make laws that all states had to follow. The bottom-up movement led by activists like MLK led to the commitment of the government to improve civil rights. President Kennedy announced his support for African Americans, which was the first time federal agencies could independently identify discrimination and impose remedies”(KJKV149) to help African Americans. Even though it took many years and even a Civil War to make and enforce laws, Congress could finally unify the Union and the Confederates by passing uniform slave laws. For example, in 1964, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act that ended segregation in public education, accommodations, and employment, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which suspended “the use of literacy tests and similar mechanisms” which kept illiterate and poor African Americans from voting, and in 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that “outlawed refusal to rent or sell housing on grounds of race or religion”(KJKV 153). Although some pro-slavery citizens and even anti-federalists argue that the federal government was able to
Having laws passed among all fifty states also maintains unity among the country and keeps all states on the same level as far as important regulations go. Also, each state has the equal power to bring an issue to Washington in hopes that it becomes favorable among legislators as well. In a country where discrimination has been present in more than just a few ways, federalism allows for the continuity of rules that can be guaranteed to be withheld for all people of all …show more content…
Instead of settling for compromises like the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 where some states were ‘free states’ and some states were ‘slave states,’ nationalization gave Congress the power to make laws that all states had to follow. The bottom-up movement led by activists like MLK led to the commitment of the government to improve civil rights. President Kennedy announced his support for African Americans, which was the first time federal agencies could independently identify discrimination and impose remedies”(KJKV149) to help African Americans. Even though it took many years and even a Civil War to make and enforce laws, Congress could finally unify the Union and the Confederates by passing uniform slave laws. For example, in 1964, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act that ended segregation in public education, accommodations, and employment, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which suspended “the use of literacy tests and similar mechanisms” which kept illiterate and poor African Americans from voting, and in 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that “outlawed refusal to rent or sell housing on grounds of race or religion”(KJKV 153). Although some pro-slavery citizens and even anti-federalists argue that the federal government was able to