See the parallel "Democracy is broken" piece from the 1860's - it's precisely this that the author alludes to - that states grow more, not less divergent over t

See the parallel "Democracy is broken" piece from the 1860's - it's precisely this that the author alludes to - that states grow more, not less divergent over time. I'm not sure that that's true, however, nor am I sure that it's a bad thing - we see devolution proactively happening elsewhere in the world.