The USA should be a confederation.

First I would like to say ten. You mention the words "Confederation" or "Confederacy" twelve time in your Round 2 case, including the request for me to count those words, that goes up to twelve. But let's get down to business, shall we? First, I will be going over my opponent's argument, and then making my own. Rebuttal: The main concept my opponent elected to use here is that of the Iroquois Confederacy, and how well it worked for them, thus we must make a similar transition so that it will work well for us. This, however, is a misguided view of how the things ought to be because it fails to take into account the way things were before the transition to confederacy. The members Iroquois Confederacy were completely separate before joining the union. Before the union was formed, each and every member tribe was a separate entity from the other tribes. Each tribe had it's own identity, its own sense of self. The people's loyalty most likely went something like this: 1. Tribe 2. Village 3. Self 4. Iroquois Confederacy A confederacy which, at its core, values the rights of its member states ahead of the rights of the central government itself, is exactly what the people of those tribes needed at the time. They needed a system that grants both sovereignty and cohesion into one tight bundle, because the people saw themselves as Mohawk or Seneca before they saw themselves as Iroquois. The people were simply tribesmen before countrymen, and needed to be governed as such. The people of the United States are completely different, however, as Americans don't see themselves in that same light at all. The status quo before the change would be modern day United States, and the modern day American sees themselves much more patriotic then their classical Iroquois counterparts. For starters, the modern American has been raised in an already formed country which enjoys mostly peace within its borders, far form the blood soaked battle grounds of the pre-Confederacy North American North East. The modern American has also been raised to be a zealous patriot and an individual, usually landing in one of those two extremes. As a result, most American's loyalties lie more or less like this: 1. USA 2. Self 3. State 4. City The average American sees themselves as an American before they see themselves as a Californian, or Texan, or Nevadan. They value National Sovereignty over State Sovereignty. They have more loyalty to the country than to their state and deserve to be governed as such. Con also never gives a reason why State sovereignty is better then National, except for a potential drop in corruption. This is not the case, however. It is much easier to corrupt and take over smaller, less powerful organizations then it is to corrupt large, powerful ones. This isn't to say our government now isn't corrupt, it most certainly is, its just that a creation of small organizations is ripe for corruption. Now on to my case. (Apologies for everything after this, because I'm writing this at about 4 A.M.) Contention 1 The United States should not become a Confederacy because it would harm governmental legitimacy. A government is only legitimate if it is able to serve the needs of it's people effectively. Becoming a confederacy would ensure that the government of the United States would be, in essence, weaker then the state governments. This government wouldn't be able to effectively serve the needs of the people as the only governments that would be able to effectively serve its people would be the state's. The USA would become little more than a consortium of states following their own agendas rather than a truly united nation. Contention 2 The United States should not become a Confederacy because it goes against the will of the people. As I previously said, most Americans think of themselves as Americans before they think of themselves as Texans, Californians, ect., ect. To govern these citizens in a manor that makes them Texans (or whatever) before Americans, as the US government would have no real power, is simply and utterly wrong. Contention 3 The United States should not become a Confederacy because it would harm us on the global stage. As allready stated about a quadrillion times, the US government would be rendered extremely weak by becoming a Confederacy. That weakness would show globally, as it would reduce one of the most unified and powerful nations on earth to fifty bickering states, all following their own prerogatives. I await your rebuttal, TheBlueWizard