I definitely wish people thought more locally -- really locally, like their towns. I don't think it's a coincidence that the time frame I outlined above is the same as the emergence of 24 hour news, which rapidly became 24 hour infotainment -- the news as a big Manichean football match. I believe that pushed people into thinking about Big Issues and lost any focus on things that actually matter in their daily lives.
If there was a "golden age" of national collegiality, it was the postwar era -- exactly the time we were busily building infrastructure that made interstate commerce and travel much easier. That ended when genuinely national and world issues came to the fore -- a push to end minority abuse in some states, and a war that forced young men to participate. I believe that the lines were set then and we continue to re-fight that same fight.
The issue in TFA is exactly the kind of thing that needs a national-level response: the only thing more distasteful than a national rule about robocalls is going to be 50 state rules about robocalls that would require federal court litigation anyway. Past interstates and airplanes, the Internet has replaced ordinary telecommunications, and blurred state lines almost to invisibility.
If there was a "golden age" of national collegiality, it was the postwar era -- exactly the time we were busily building infrastructure that made interstate commerce and travel much easier. That ended when genuinely national and world issues came to the fore -- a push to end minority abuse in some states, and a war that forced young men to participate. I believe that the lines were set then and we continue to re-fight that same fight.
The issue in TFA is exactly the kind of thing that needs a national-level response: the only thing more distasteful than a national rule about robocalls is going to be 50 state rules about robocalls that would require federal court litigation anyway. Past interstates and airplanes, the Internet has replaced ordinary telecommunications, and blurred state lines almost to invisibility.