To view this on the COS website, click here not-less-government
“What we need is not more Federal government but better local government.”
| When I spoke to Regional Captain John Poelstra about Michigan collecting 100,000 petitions, he brought up an important distinction about Convention of States: “I’m not one that believes that we’ll have less government; what we’ll have is a shifting of government, from central government more to the states.” The states, he added, “understand the priorities of their communities better.” He provided an example: “As much as we might say that vaccine mandates and masking mandates were an overreach of the federal government, I tell people, whether you agree with it or not … who’d be better to make that decision? Would it be the central government or would it be your state governments? Whichever side of the fence you’re on, would that decision be better made by your local community health boards and state government, or by a federal government that wants a one-size-fits-all kind of approach?” The answer should be obvious. But to millions of Americans who seem to bypass their local and state governments and skip straight to the federal level, it may not be. For generations, we have been conditioned to look to Washington to get involved in everything from housing and urban development to health and education. It sounds like Big Brother agitprop, but many of us live as if Uncle Sam will keep us healthy, Uncle Sam will keep us safe, Uncle Sam will keep us happy. George Washington’s original cabinet included just four members: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Modern-day big government enthusiasts likely will gawk: But who tended to the nation’s agriculture? Who supervised transportation? Who kept our schoolchildren educated? The answer: the people and the states. What a novel idea! Fast forward to 2025: we’ve replaced government as a crutch with government as a wheelchair. “We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around,” Ronald Reagan once said. But today, it seems the entire nation would grind to a screeching halt if deprived of the government’s constant parenting. We’ve let our muscle of self-governance atrophy and become overly dependent on government as shepherd, caregiver, and overseer to lead us. The public and media reaction to President Donald Trump’s proposal to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) illustrates this point clearly. Many responded as if he were attacking education or disaster relief itself, revealing how deeply ingrained the belief has become that only the federal government is capable of managing these functions. It isn’t about less education or less disaster relief; Trump has been very clear about that. He merely believes that the states — which are more accountable to the people — are better suited to handle these issues. And he’s right. If Washington announced an unfavorable education policy tomorrow, you would be virtually powerless to change it. You’d be hard-pressed to meet with your congressman, let alone the Secretary of Education. But if your local school board announced that same policy, your level of influence would increase exponentially. The same is true not only of education, but almost any topic. As Poelstra noted, “By shifting more of the governance to the states … grassroots organizations have a lot more influence with the state governments than they ever will with the central government.” “The central government is influenced by high-price cooperate lawyers .… By shifting it to the states, you empower communities and grassroots organizations,” he explained. Meeting with local and state government officials, in most cases, is surprisingly easy. But it requires rebuilding that self-governance muscle rather than simply kicking our problems to the federal government to solve. Instead of complaining that the “little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital” doesn’t represent our values, let’s build a robust grassroots movement and bring power back as close to home as possible — all of which is possible through Convention of States. As Calvin Coolidge wisely acknowledged in his “The Reign of Law” speech, “What we need is not more Federal government but better local government.” “A community comprising … more than a hundred million people [that number has since exploded to over 340 million] could not possibly be administered under a single government organization,” he said. “We must maintain a proper measure of local self-government while constantly making adjustments to an increasing interdependence among the political parts.” To join Convention of States in pursuit of that goal, sign the petition below. # | PETITION_WIDGET{petition_tag:comms_blog_NA_08/22/2025_notlessgovernment…_08222025;coalition_id:;anedot_url:} | # |
| Page Metadata | |
| Login Required to view? | No |
| Created: | 2025-08-22 20:24 GMT |
| Updated: | 2025-08-29 07:00 GMT |
| Published: | 2025-08-22 20:00 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 12:06 GMT |
| Change Author: | Jakob Fay |
| Credit Author: | |