"Federalism can certainly be a messy system of government. Democracy always is."

I think we often have the wrong idea about democracy: it isn't always wildly efficient, and it doesn't guarantee the best governance. Its great advantage is that it is the best protection we have against the worst governance. People can get rid of governments whose decisions they don't like.

Federalism is good, principally because decisions can be made at the lowest possible level, as close as possible to the people whose lives they affect. People in a federal system are thus in a better position to reject bad governance on any given issue, because they have a better chance of understanding what is being done to them.

Inefficient? Hell yeah: we could go so much faster if it weren't for the brakes!