Federalism was supposed to enable pluralism within a single political entity. Each state could live the way they wanted to and have different rules/laws than t

Federalism was supposed to enable pluralism within a single political entity. Each state could live the way they wanted to and have different rules/laws than their neighbors. The urge to use the federal level of government to impose uniform social rules on all the sub-units undermines the possibility of stable political pluralism. Once rules at the state level are no longer safe, the stakes for controlling the single central point of failure at the federal level rise to the point where political differences become intolerable.