Federalism saved our nation from disaster

The agents of which of these two entities acted more responsibly in the 2020 presidential election — the two-party system or our federalist system?

The obvious answer is the agents of the federalist system. Leaders of each state government disregarded the prevalent blue states-red states dichotomy that permeates contemporary politics and followed the mandates of the Constitution and states laws. Conversely, national political leaders, especially congressional Republicans, ignored their responsibility under the Constitution.

Officials in all the states, whether they were Democrats or Republicans, submitted election results that reflected the popular votes in their states, even in cases where the leadership was Republican but the popular vote went to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The scene in Congress, however, was different. In the House of Representatives, nearly two-thirds of Republicans voted to reject the Electoral College results, and so did a small band of Republicans in the Senate.

The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, placed their confidence in federalism and advised against the formation of factions (the precursor of political parties), and they were apparently right. There is no questioning our two-party system, with its overheated partisan politics, leaves much to be desired.

When the dust has cleared from this debacle, I hope credit will be given to state officials who saved our constitutional republic. I also hope we vote out of office those members of Congress who were complicit with those who attempted to make a mockery of our democratically held election and who would have destroyed our republic.

Moreover, I hope we learn from this nightmare and cease electing bad actors to grace the hallowed halls of Congress and the White House.

– Whittington B. Johnson,

Kendall