In "Democracy in Chains," Nancy MacLean explores how Calhoun increasingly viewed the federal government as a threat to individual freedoms. He believed that a powerful central authority could impose on personal liberties and sought to limit its reach through political and ideological means. This perspective shaped his advocacy for states' rights and limited government as a way to protect liberty.

MacLean highlights that Calhoun's ideas contributed to a broader far-right strategy to undermine federal authority gradually. This "stealth plan" aimed to preserve a form of government favoring aristocratic and corporate interests, often cloaked as defenses of liberty. Calhoun's legacy, according to MacLean, is part of a long history of efforts to weaken federal power to benefit specific elite groups.