My understanding of history is that the more successful democratically elected leaders seem to know when to push against democratic principles to get things done. Lincoln suspended the state rights of Maryland for it was a slave state too close to Washington DC. FDR used lots of executive orders to implement his new deal. On a much smaller scale, ambitious politicians are looking for ways to tilt the internal party election in their favor. It’s all a game.

The Founding Fathers strongly believed that states should almost be independent countries. But as time passed, this relationship has changed for more federal control. Mr. Trump does not seem to be reversing this trend.

As for income tax, there were two important changes to the world that affected this change. Government often used tariffs to raise revenue — which was proving not to economically best for the nation. And accounting practices were approaching the standards where taxes could be collected from payroll deductions. The two sort of came together at the same time. I would not want to go back to the GOOD OLD DAYS on that matter.