ABSTRACT
Federalism is deeply embedded in the genetic code of the American nation. Federalism has shaped Americans' lives, their conflicts, their prosperity. It has literally helped to shape the face of the nation— as immigration policy demonstrates. Immigration has changed the face of America over and over again, and its continuing struggles over immigration shows the durability of federalism in shaping the twenty-first-century United States. Federalism fragmented public offices and public policy, the chief prizes of politics. Political organizations that pursued these prizes adapted to American federalism by fragmenting themselves. Conservatives have a deep commitment to federalism in theory. Liberals have actively used American federalism and states' authority throughout American history, though they rarely appreciate that they have done so. In the polarized United States of the early twenty-first century, it is a hopeful sign that some states are battling to preserve and deepen American democracy itself.
