[lisper]

> tenants

Tenets.

> states should regulate their internal commerce

That idea was invented at a time when the fastest way to travel or communicate was by horse. In the age of the automobile, the airplane, and the internet, there is barely any such thing as "internal commerce" any more.

[brownbat]

I'd add that there are competing constitutional priorities, one of ensuring states can regulate their own affairs, and another of ensuring a common market, and ensuring that the legal frameworks of the various states are interlocking.

Balancing these two values is not trivial. Article 4 takes a shot, it's how we got here.

Odd to claim it's antithetical to American democracy. These sorts of compromises between union and independence, with all their odd imperfect results, are pretty thoroughly baked in.

[joe_the_user]

* In the age of the automobile, the airplane, and the internet, there is barely any such thing as "internal commerce" any more. *

In that case, the government elected by the population of all fifty states seems a more appropriate regulatory body than that elected by just one of the smallest state populations in the union.