Dan Riehl:

In what could conceivably be seen as an opening salvo in Election 2012, Texas Governor Rick Perry has opted to take a very visible stand on a sovereignty resolution (text) passed by the Texas legislature.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

It’s a move every bit as populist as the Tea Party movement.

While the consistent headline refreshing nature of today’s 24 hour news cycle won’t permit it in coverage of the Tea Party protests tomorrow, this is the battleground we’re moving into for the next couple of years.

By putting an uber-liberal agenda above simply shepherding America through tough times, he has opened the door to a vigorous debate those on the Right should welcome and engage.

Although Riehl’s post may greatly encourage conservative bloggers like Riehl, I don’t think that we will see major return of the principles of federalism. Americans have become too dependent on Washington, D.C. – Democrats and even Republicans have seen to that.

However, the tea parties and Perry’s federalist attitude could be the opening salvo for a new, a modern battle: strict federalism is never coming back, but that does not mean there can be no conservative revival. There can be.In fact, I think there will be.

To me, the present situation is comparable to that of the 1960s when JFK won the elections, Barry Goldwater caused a conservative revolution in the Republican Party four years later, LBJ won the elections nonetheless, only to be succeeded by Richard M. Nixon who ran on a conservative agenda (although his style of governing was more right-of-center). Nixon would not have won if it was not for Goldwater’s revolution. And then things got even better, from a conservative perspective at least: Jimmy Carter beat Ford because Ford had pardoned Nixon, but lost four years later to Ronald Reagan – perhaps the most conservative president of the 20th century. Reagan and Nixon both were conservatives, and Reagan was deeply influenced by libertarian principles, but they did not do away with government altogether, nor did they restore strict federalism as it was originally meant. But they did govern like conservatives, and accomplished a great deal for their nation.

That is, I think, what conservatives should hope and aim for. Not to go back to the 18th century – it’s impossible, the world and America have changed too much.