A FB commmentor asks in regards to Thomas Jefferson's the Hundreds: "How to deal with North Korea's nukes or foreign tariffs under such a system?"
To which it is responded:
Maybe mutual defense agreements?
Let's first establish that consent of the governed is required for any government to have power. That sounds good in theory, but in practice -- here's the problem: if someone denies consent, a bunch of peeps will come and haul consent deniers off to a nice 5 X 9 cell. The idea of miniature republics makes it such that one man is not standing completely alone during times that he may deny consent. It also moves governance much closer to home, where his voice can still be heard, rather than the present situation of millions of voices being filtered through one man and ultimately down to 5 to 4 court decisions in which he has no voice. I suspect what would happen is consent would be denied on the basis of unconstitutional provisions or those provisions which usurp power - they simply wouldn't be enforced.
What COULD be lost? Standardization and consistency. But, I suspect the individual republics would quickly form agreements to standardize on some items. It would be similar to the war between VHS and betamax in terms of standards. The whole point of the federal system was to encourage diversity and competition among the states.
But, the problem you point out is valid and is the same problem, but different form, as paying for naval power. Thomas Jefferson was a pretty sharp cookie, so I imagine he considered these issues when he wrote: "These little republics would be the main strength of the great one." Essentially, the little republics act as a check against federal or even state usurpation by keeping people sufficiently organized, educated LOCALLY, and more importantly, acting as a VIABLE threat against usurpation through organization. It can be argued that this same FORM of threat is what keeps the nutcase in NK from unleashing his nukes. No one wants the whole system to collapse just the same as only a nutcase would start a nuclear war as it would ruin it for everyone. Therefore, there is a built in control that would cause the mini republics to want to participate in a larger state via treaty or electing to participate.
Anyway, right now we have enough nukes to destroy this whole planet many times over. Do you suppose that there might have been some undue influence in the procurement of those contracts? That some money might have swapped hands in the form of lucrative real-estate deals or similar? How is that on a meager salary of just over 100k, most all our Congressmen become millionaires after entering office? etc. etc. etc.
You're not wrong, but something needs to be done to return more local control. People may talk about secession for the next 100 years and I don't think it will happen just due to the logistical challenges alone. However, the Texas Bill of Rights guarantees the right to abolish the government in whatever manner we see fit so long as it is a republic. Perhaps mini-republics would be a viable path for any group brave enough.