U.S. History

The nationalists at the Constitutional Convention had so far carried the substance of their program: the creation of a supreme national government and a Congress empowered to veto state laws whenever Congress thought the states "incompetent." 

Contrary to what Krugman might argue, the growth of organized labor in the US workforce was much more the work of government prodding and outright coercion than it was a natural progression of the American workplace.

The fragmentation of power into many small local units is likely to make oppression of minorities more difficult. On the other hand, consolidation of power into a single popularly-elected Congress posed a grave threat to the rights of ordinary Americans. 

When politicians claim to deplore violence, its hard to take them seriously when they have a long track record of supporting brutal and arbitrary violence both at home and abroad.