One major drawback is that efficiencies of scale can’t be taken advantage of and inequities at scale are easier to propagate. So we have a very slow process that ends up disenfranchising a larger amount of people than I’d be comfortable with in a modern developed democracy. This is extremely evident when you start comparing how well governments run in other Western democracies.

I meant to respond to GP earlier and you got to it before me admirably, but if I may be more terse: some of these states are still experimenting with rehabilitating the Confederacy.