Las Vegas Sun

May 4, 2024

Letter to the Editor:

Time to reel in tyrants’ power

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have given too much power to too few people to hold for too long in America.

Power has shifted from localities to states and from states to the central government over the past 100 years or so. This shift diminished the power of hundreds of thousands of state legislators, county commissioners, city and town council members, and local judicial bodies. It’s been consolidated in the hands of 535 members of Congress, nine Supreme Court justices and one president. That’s the “too much power to too few” part of the equation.

We have also allowed all but one of these power-laden men and women to stay in office for a lifetime if they can manage it. That is the “too long” half of the problem.

If America wants to help save democracy, we must devolve federal power back to states and localities, and place term-limits on the tyrants currently lording it over the nation. That is necessary to bring self-determination back to the people of this country.