Thoughts on American Politics

A friend recently asked me my general thoughts on the current situation in American politics. Here is my response—at least off-the-cuff:
There are multiple problems going on as I see it, but some very crucial ones are, I would say driving many of the problems. There is the issue of redundancy in our federal system. Our constitutional principles have been violated in many ways, but one of them is that multiple levels of government (local, state, and federal) are involved in the same issues. A great example is the case of education. Not only is it wasteful when all levels of government get involved, it confuses people with respect to accountability/responsibility. People don't know who to blame, and politicians/agencies can blame others when things go wrong. Another major violation is the significant consolidation of power in D.C. (A trend that goes at least as far back as the Civil War.) The most abused and ignored amendment in our US constitution is the 10th. Only the powers explicitly given in the constitution are supposed to belong to the federal govt, but many, many powers have consolidated in the federal govt beyond what is explicitly given. A good example of this issue is that back in the early 20th century, in order for Congress to prohibit alcohol, they knew they had to pass a constitutional amendment because they did not have the power to do so. Now, Congress passes bills on all sorts of issues regulating our lives which it doesn't have the constitutional mandate to do. So, they argue that the mandate is "implied" based on their interpretations of the constitution...
My greatest fear in all this is the impact this all has on our political culture. We are less and less a self-governing society. I came up against this recently when arguing with a liberal about the American heritage of granting local communities the jurisdiction of education and the need to keep states and federal agencies out of the local communities management of their own schools. Her response was something like, "If you do that, schools in the south will be teaching evolution and engaging in prejudice against blacks." My response was basically, "so what you are telling me is that the American people are not competent for self-government?" If families can't figure out how to manage or chose representatives to manage their local schools, then we are in truly bad shape as a self-governing people.
On the other hand, the conservatives are not by any stretch right on all counts as far as I'm concerned. They continue to talk about getting budget spending under control as if they would be fiscally responsible, but every chance they've gotten in the last 50 years they have squandered. They get their tax cuts passed first and then have their spending cuts stall. The result is less govt revenue and no less spending. In addition, they have taken the modus operandi of the liberals when it comes to accomplishing their policies—using the federal govt to do so. Instead of doing any significant actions to devolve power from the federal government to state or local governments (or to eliminate some govt activities altogether to leave to voluntary institutions in civil society) the conservatives have begun trying to use the courts, the presidential administration, the Congress to get their policies through. This exacerbates the problems of eroding the political culture. The conservatives on foreign policy and defense is another issue, but don't get me started on that one. I'm very supported of a very well equipped and funded military (with the highest degree of technological investment and training), but our military was never intended to be a force sent around the world. A large standing army was never to be in the United States. We were supposed to be a people designed to defend our land and liberties through well trained, citizen militias that were locally managed. We have the Civil War to thank for losing our tradition of state militia-oriented military. We have the Cold War to thank for conservatives losing sight of the traditional conservative viewpoint of a defensive military. Maybe it was necessary to some extent during the Cold War, but conservatives who support "nation building" enterprises should be ashamed of themselves. American military personnel should be defending American land and liberties—and that was never intended to be the land they might own abroad or the liberties they wish they had when traveling abroad. When you do either of those things, you do so at your own risk.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some very strong and good aspects of our political culture. There are people who know how things are being managed in their local and state governments. They know how to vote and how to get involved in the issues. But, these people are few and far between. And, as power is consolidated at the federal level, the chance of people "getting involved" at the local level in solving our social problems is diminished. Most Americans don't know who their city or town council members are—or even that their town or city is run by a council, for example. If we don't find ways to get people more motivated to and more empowered to be political active, we will lose even the vestiges of self-government we currently have. But, for conservatives, that means that they need to be willing to let the more liberal states and communities make their societies more liberal—and live with those consequences.
These core problems are unlikely to be addressed because they are deeply embedded in our society now and reversing things is unlikely. The only way now is to try to seek "reforms" that are perceived as "new solutions" but actually build on older principles. The prospects seem very bleak for significant reforms of this type. We are probably stuck with centralized government that is loosely kept in check by national public opinion. This will be decreasingly made up of self-governing communities.
But, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some significant reforms are possible.