I often think of Ben Gates's line from National Treasure Book of Secrets:

"Before the Civil War, the states were all separate. People used to say "United States are." Wasn't until the war ended, people started saying "The United States is." Under Lincoln, we became one nation."

But we were supposed to stay independent to a great degree from one another. The United States are was the way our Founding Fathers saw the country.

The country was formed to be sorts of like the EU. Each state was its own country. Only when dealing with large issues would the Feds have a say - like treaties and national defense. States had their own currencies. It will be wonderful to get back to the old ways.