Strengthened local government and a weaker federal government

First, I would leave all law making to the local governments, so the federal government wouldn't have a final say in things. It would only be there in the event one state and another state get into a fight, in which case the federal government could resolve this. For example, each local government would get one representative, and each representative is in the federal government. These representatives then vote on how to settle the dispute between those two states. So the difference between this government I propose and say what the US has or what most governments have, is there would be no law-making done by the federal government. The federal government would only be there to work out a compromise of sorts between states that have conflicting laws, and if these states' laws were to come in to conflict. In most cases, the states laws wouldn't come into conflict with each other since they govern different areas. One example where this would happen is if two states agreed upon having an interstate road, but they can't agree on where it should go. Then that's something the federal government can step in and handle and come to a compromise. I'd probably make it a requirement that when the federal government makes a compromise, it truly has to be a compromise between the states. I would say the federal government can't take one side or the other and is there to determine a compromise. In addition to this, I would also say that state and city governments should be able to enter into treaties with other cities and states/provinces from other countries, or to enter into a treaty with that country too. So that is another way in which more power would be given to the states. I'll explain later why this would be beneficial. While I agree with my opponent that unification is important, I would argue that a federal government that makes laws is not necessary for that. All a federal government needs to maintain unity is a military. If a state or several states break away, then the military the federal government has can be used to enforce that they stay in, by war if necessary. I would argue that, if the states were left with more power than the federal government, they would have no reason to break away though. What was the reason the south left the union in 1861? Was it not primarily because they were afraid of a federal government which would take away states' rights? What reason would a state have to leave a country if the local government is the strongest form of government? In addition, a problem that I see with federal government is that it causes gridlock and little gets done a lot of times. Partisanship is MUCH more potent at the federal level than it is at the state level. It's nearly non-existent at the city level. The advantage of giving more power to the cities and states, is that more will get done because partisanship is not an issue at the city level, and is not as bad at the state level. I recommend watching this TED talk which discusses this very thing: https://www.ted.com... Mayors all over the world, for example, are better at combating climate change, as discussed in the video, than the federal government who is so partisan that it even caused almost 2 government shut downs and one did in fact actually happen. As I mentioned before, I believe it would be good for cities and states to be able to enter treaties with other cities and states of other nations. The reason why is because then things could get done for issues such as climate change, and there would be no federal government blocking this from happening like there is now. The federal government will often protect the fossil fuel industry, however, if it wasn't the federal government's job to do this, cities would be able to stand up to this industry, where as before there is no one who is able to because of the federal government protecting them. That's just one example, but that can happen for other topics as well I'm sure. I'll end with summarizing everything I've said: More people will be happy under more powerful local governments, more things will get done because there is not as much gridlock and partisanship on the city level and state levels as there is in the federal government, and more issues that effect certain people at a local level will be able to be better addressed by someone who can understand the issue as they live in the same area unlike federal government officials.