"You give" implies the ability to decide that. The problem is that there's always the threat of people such as slavers, religious fanatics, ethnonationalists etc coming to power. The more that power is centralized, the more they can do with it.

And yes, conversely, when power is decentralized, you don't get "benevolent dictators" who might otherwise do some good. My point is that this argument doesn't really work if applied consistently in all cases - or, at least, not without more digging into the specifics of costs vs benefits. Personally, I'm not convinced that centralization is a net good overall, if only because it makes large standing armies possible.

The civil war was all about membership flexibility. Is it any surprise that the losers wanted their 'divetsity' to be accommodated.

Frankly we're heading down the path of membership flexibility if the next few years don't bring about significant change.

Speaking as a foreigner who immigrated to the US, I don't see Americans as a single nation. Maybe that was the case at some point in the past, but there are too many cultural divisions by now that transcend compatriotism.

As others have noted, here's good argument why USA isn't a nation: https://acoup.blog/2021/07/02/collections-my-country-isnt-a-...