A Brief History of Wartime Federal Expansion

While the Federal instinct to encroach is constant, an uncomfortable historical fact should slow down your enthusiasm whenever you hear cries for unity during war time. The enemies that America faces are our enemies for good reason, but the current bloated state of the Federal government has been allowed only through a series of encroachments in wartime. From 1776 to the present, war has allowed the Federal government to throw out all previously agreed-upon rules and overtake areas of life that would’ve belonged to the states or private citizens in any other time. The eyes of vigilance towards the Federal government are eased, and the scrutiny is shifted to other countries. This is completely understandable, but stands as a reminder that no matter the situation, the state’s instinctual grasping for power never stops. The threat of British takeover in the revolutionary war allowed many states to concede to a union far firmer than what they would have otherwise agreed to. The Federalists saw strong unity as necessary to defeating the British and to life even in peace time. Perhaps the…