To check federal power-lust, the founders crafted the U.S. Senate as the representative body of the states. Senators were originally elected by state legislatures, not by popular vote as mandated by the 17th amendment, ratified in 1913. There's been an unchecked accrual of power by the federal government since that fateful year.
Kansas just criminalized the enforcement of federal gun controls. In quick response, Attorney General Eric Holder – flaming leftist radical from Columbia, voting-fraud facilitator, Fast and Furious co-conspirator and arbiter of selective justice who seems deaf, dumb and blind to the crimes and violence of "protected" classes – jumps up waving the Constitution. That's like a jackal lecturing on proper table manners. Boxed in a corner by federal predators, the states are lashing out to preserve the very concept of federalism. As another example, South Carolina is moving to criminalize enforcement of Obamacare. How about billboards across the nation saying, "Stand with Kansas"?
If the founders' wisdom hadn't been defied by 20th-century snakes in the grass, the U.S. Senate would have been the states' advocate and protector of states' sovereignty for the past 100 years, and America wouldn't be in this awful mess.
Factoid: There are 30 red states where Republicans hold majorities in their respective state legislatures. That would translate to a solid Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, were it not for the 17th amendment.
Billy Richards