Kate Hamel: We need grassroots democracy

The current emphasis on federal politics over state politics is slowly killing the nation and its people. The Founding Fathers believed in a union of states, each with its own governing body and unified by a shared association with the federal government that maintained the democratic institutions upon which the Founding Fathers built this nation.

The Founders always meant to vest power in the states, with the senators and congressmen in the government representing the states that elected them. Instead, they represent the federal government and vote on whatever the federal government demands of them.

For a long time, the federal government has siphoned funds from the states through federal taxes to fund their interests with no regard for the people they are taking from. People are homeless, starving, and dying, and the states can do nothing but sit and watch as the federal government takes the money that these states could have used to solve these problems and spends it on frivolous things like funding overseas wars or their paychecks.

The federal government strips away money that could have saved lives while the states suffer the consequences because they have nothing to tax themselves. The states have no way to support their local governments, so property taxes continue to skyrocket. If this nation will survive, there needs to be a significant shift toward local and state politics over federal politics.

Kate Hamel

Florence