Liberal Federalism (Or The Balkanizing of the Empire)

I've been meaning to post this link for a long time. Dan Kemmis, former mayor of Missoula and Speaker of the House in Montana, has advocated for a regional-type federalism, along the lines of Kirpatrick Sale's ideas of bioregional autonomy (but without the economic and cultural isolation implicit in Sale's vision).

Secession of the Colorado Plateau is something I've half-facetiously advocated for years now; whether those are the right (no pun intended) lines to draw or not is less the issue than if, essentially, a Balkanization of the U.S. is inevitable and/or desirable.

From slate.com

Federalism doesn't suit the typical liberal's self-image, but one of the most persuasive defenders of decentralizing political power was that ultimate object of liberal cosmopolitan admiration (and conservative scorn), a French intellectual: Alexis de Tocqueville argued that the strength and dynamism of American democracy were found in its local communities. He was right: Local and state governments can be more innovative, daring, and proactive—in short, more progressive—than even the liberal Congresses of distant memory. A growing number of state courts and legislatures have pioneered public-school finance reform, working to ensure that kids from poor neighborhoods are not stuck in inferior schools. Many states have civil rights guarantees that are stronger than those under federal law, especially with respect to sexual orientation discrimination, which federal law does not prohibit.