Commentary A key part of the system of checks and balances that the founders devised included the principle of federalism. The natural tendency is for power to become increasingly centralized in a national government. The founders hoped to offset that tendency toward centralization via federalism—a political arrangement in which governmental powers were divided between state, county, and local governments on the one side and the federal government in Washington on the other. Progressives have favored increasing the powers of the federal/national government for more than a century. They scored a key victory in 1913 when the country adopted the 17th Amendment. That ended the practice of state legislatures appointing U.S. senators, replacing it with the popular election of senators. That reform removed an important source of leverage that state legislatures had had over the federal government, weakening the states while augmenting the power in Washington. Today, federalism is under full-scale …