1. The states created the Federal Government. The other possibility would be to have 13 fully independent countries from the start -- instead they agreed to form a loose composite (and then a somewhat less loose composite that delegated a handful of powers to the previously powerless central government).
2. Federations are a lot less unstable than other forms of government, especially when you scale them to something really, really huge. We would have long ago disintegrated into a bloodied wasteland if we weren't a federal structure (the mess of the 1860s shouldn't have happened -- the Fed had and has no legitimate authority to keep states in by force). This means that California may well subsidize something that's a first degree felony in Alabama (abortion, if the Supreme Court hadn't gotten into the habit of violating the Constitution it exists to enforce). So if your state is doing the WRONG THING the place to complain about it is your state capital and/or throw out the bums you're sending to it -- instead of trying to force Alabama's societal norms on California or vice versa -- or you move to another state that you agree with (with 50 permutations there should be one you'll approve of). Instead, when everything hinges on Washington take the mess we have now and up it a few magnitudes. Riots, guerrilla movements, and coups d'etat -- unfortunately, that's the direction we're heading at an accelerating pace.
Direct election of senators, as nice as it sounds, was probably a mistake. The senate exists to represent the state as a whole, not function as an effort to be the most ueberslimey super-representative who can woo the mainstream media the most. If you hate your senator that the bums in Austin or equivalent are sending, then tell them -- and if they don't replace him then take it out on THEM at the next election cycle. That said, direct election would be a good fallback if the legislature is unable to select a senator for one of it's allotted positions, and it's the empty seats in the senate that caused the present situation where Senators actively subvert state governments and destabilize our federation when there role was created to protect the states.
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timeasmymeasure
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2. Federations are a lot less unstable than other forms of government, especially when you scale them to something really, really huge. We would have long ago disintegrated into a bloodied wasteland if we weren't a federal structure (the mess of the 1860s shouldn't have happened -- the Fed had and has no legitimate authority to keep states in by force). This means that California may well subsidize something that's a first degree felony in Alabama (abortion, if the Supreme Court hadn't gotten into the habit of violating the Constitution it exists to enforce). So if your state is doing the WRONG THING the place to complain about it is your state capital and/or throw out the bums you're sending to it -- instead of trying to force Alabama's societal norms on California or vice versa -- or you move to another state that you agree with (with 50 permutations there should be one you'll approve of). Instead, when everything hinges on Washington take the mess we have now and up it a few magnitudes. Riots, guerrilla movements, and coups d'etat -- unfortunately, that's the direction we're heading at an accelerating pace.
Direct election of senators, as nice as it sounds, was probably a mistake. The senate exists to represent the state as a whole, not function as an effort to be the most ueberslimey super-representative who can woo the mainstream media the most. If you hate your senator that the bums in Austin or equivalent are sending, then tell them -- and if they don't replace him then take it out on THEM at the next election cycle. That said, direct election would be a good fallback if the legislature is unable to select a senator for one of it's allotted positions, and it's the empty seats in the senate that caused the present situation where Senators actively subvert state governments and destabilize our federation when there role was created to protect the states.
SL