[hakfoo]

The roles and capabilities of the state and federal government have evolved since the 1700s.

The state level of government feels more and more like a historic novelty carried over as "we always did it this way" and "it would require far too much political capital to touch"-- America's answer to the House of Lords or the Governor General.

[Dalewyn]

State sovereignty is how and why certain States legalized marijuana while others don't, why certain States impose a given tax the way they do and others don't, why States each have a National Guard that is legally independent of the Federal military and thus from the authority of the President, and a host of other matters that are determined or reserved by a State and its electorate.

The United States of America is a very vast country literally spanning an entire continent, State sovereignty is more important now than ever before because the needs and desires of the peoples within them can and will vary wildly from each other; they varied wildly with just 13 States across the eastern seaboard, let alone 50 States spanning a continent and islands in the Pacific.

The Federal government exists to better enable functions of government where the States have a unanimous consensus, and to that end the Federal government including the Presidency exists strictly at the pleasure of the States. For all other matters where States can and will disagree, the States reserve the power to decide by themselves for themselves.

[hacknews6]

Please explain how 10 > 5, and that makes 5 the winner.

[FartinMowler]

Okay. The equivalent at the single voter level is if a voter is undecided between Candidate A and Candidate B. After much contemplation this voter decides she's 50.5% in favour of B and 49.5% in favour of A, so heads to the polls to cast 100% of her single vote for B.