So I just finished reading the Federalists. And it’s a fantastic text. A virtuoso explanation of why the Constitution is the way it is.

I wish I wish I had read this 30 years ago.

I do recommend the audiobook. The problem with the text is that it is over 200 years old and feels weird to read. But when read aloud, it just flows.

This particular narration is fantastic.

What struck me about this book is how hard the founders worked to create a system that would make it hard for a single faction to impose their vision of the Union on the other.

What also struck me is why Abraham Lincoln fought for the Union. I thought of it as a particular opinion of an intellectual. But reading the federalists, it’s clear that the Union was correctly perceived as necessary for freedom. If you compare the fate of Central America t that of North America, the value of a single all-encompassing federal state that can guarantee the safety of the individual states becomes obvious.