I often remind my liberal friends in the mainstream media and non-profit advocacy communities who believe Washington has become too secretive that you can have open government or you can have big government, but you can't have both simultaneously.
That was the absurdity of "compassionate conservativism" -- not that conservatism can't be compassionate, but because in the version offered over the last six years, it's amounted to a miniature version of the Great Society.
Thompson gives a clear indication of how federalism can apply to today's government to reduce its reach and to allow more control over self-government by communities and states. The founders included the 10th Amendment because they knew the farther power traveled from the voters, the less accountable the powerful would become. The nightmare bureaucracy of Washington DC today would be their worst nightmare come to life, with its control over all aspects of American life far outside the boundaries of the Constitution.
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