National
Opinion
Jim Fossel: Democrats push top-down reform
CentralMaine.com, 9/29/2019
Leading contenders for the presidency are calling for national projects that would interfere with state and local prerogatives.
One of the great features of our constitutional democracy — one that was thoroughly intended by our Founding Fathers as they drafted the Constitution — was that they carefully diffused power throughout government… The most famous example of this is the division of the federal government into three separate branches, but it’s not the only one. The Founding Fathers also ensured that states had a great deal of power in the new system, giving them their own constitutions and in turn empowering them to create local governments…
Many of the current crop of Democratic presidential candidates seem to have little regard for that history. They seem hell-bent on the federal government not only taking control over huge portions of our economy in order to enact their ideological agenda, but also on usurping the authority of state and local governments as well. It’s not just on one issue here or there, either — it’s on a whole variety of issues in different policy areas. [Emphasis added]