Why Conservatives Want Power In States’ Hands And Not The Federal Government

Conservatives all across the country have been complaining for years that the states should have more power to decide how the country runs. It’s as if they want to return to the Articles of Confederation. Some even think that the states have more power than they do and can nullify laws passed by the federal government. By the way, they can’t unless the Supreme Court agrees the law is unconstitutional, but that is one reason why they want more power in the hands of their state legislatures.

They absolutely believe that states can do it better. Of course, conservatives control a majority of the states at the moment, so they definitely would want more power in the hands of the states. Some states, like Wisconsin, are even changing campaign finance laws to make it easier for businesses to collude with the Republicans in power to make sure they win the next election. Then they are also gutting the major force that was meant to investigate wrongdoing of these politicians.

But that’s not the only thing they are doing to make sure they stay in power in these states. In Alabama and many other states they have passed voter ID laws. That doesn’t sound too bad especially since they convinced the majority of people of the rampant fraud that doesn’t exist and the need to make the election safe. However, Alabama started shutting down DMVs in counties that are predominately black until they were threatened by action from the federal government. However, now they are opening them just once a week for business. So, if you live in those counties you have to travel to the next county over, or further, to get an ID to vote most of the time. Sounds fishy, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, the biggest complaint about federal power versus state power is that the people in Washington, D.C. just don’t listen to the people. Some of that is certainly true, but the solution conservatives have in mind is not the way to solve it and this is why.

Here are the major problems associated with handing powers to the states. First off, you begin to have a patchwork of laws spread all over the country. What is legal in one state is banned in other states. Well, until the next election and the conservative government is overthrown or the liberal government is ousted. Then the laws are changed. You like being able to smoke pot in Colorado? Well, they just elected a conservative government. Say goodbye to that privilege.

Four years later that may change again, but maybe not. It may change in eight years. The constant insecurity of laws becomes maddening. If you think that is bad, just imagine how many new religious laws would be passed right now that half the nation seems to be terrified of Muslims. If you happen to be a Muslim in Texas or Oklahoma how terrible would your life be with all the very conservative people there who would be pushing for strict new laws against you?

This is why we can’t have a workable system of state power. That is why we don’t live by the Articles of Confederation and have the Constitution of the United States as our governing document. The founding fathers realized that the original system was too flawed to succeed.

There is a way in our current system to make our representatives sit up and take notice of the people, but we never really use it. The people have to go to the voting booths every time there is an election, and when they don’t like their representative or think they don’t listen to them, they MUST vote them out. It doesn’t matter what party they are for. If you want your representatives to start listening to you, you have to start doing your civic duty. Far too often that is why our government representatives do not listen to us.

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