At the conclusion of the 18th century, America became a free nation. Our nation’s declaration was signed in blood as well as in ink. The intent was to create a free society where one could practice their faith freely and not be taxed without representation. Both of these are noble goals, both of which seemed to have been accomplished in this American experiment.

Fast forward over two hundred years later, and if you are a first time visitor or even potentially an average citizen, everything seems intact. “The Founders would be proud,” you think to yourself. However, if you are paying attention, you say what the Senator from Kentucky and potential presidential candidate, Rand Paul, said in his response to the State of the Union Address, that “All is not well in America.” Many of us conservatives, myself included, could easily point all our fingers at what we believe to be the problem: The Obama Administration. While this may placate our short‐term memory of the early 21st century, it is crucial to remember that Obama is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.

The problem is executive overreach. The secondary problem is that due to this centralization of the government, states are not being heard. Ohio has no power, and neither do our 49 sister states. As our Republic has grown to be so large and prosperous, the layperson may feel that there is no need to be educated on these issues. This is because they believe it won’t affect them.

“America is too big to fail,” they may think. Such a statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

Governmental obesity is a big problem and is hurting the pride of the states. When a federal government has so much control, and the states essentially have none, we become one big nation with no representation. If there is no representation for the individual states, then we have no need for a president as a figurehead, but a president as a dictator will instead become a mainstay idea.

I am sure this seems to be an outrageous statement. Let me put it to you this way: it has been over 200 years since a president only had double‐digit executive orders and since then at least three have had over 1,000. All the rest average out at over 200 executive orders. That’s not communication with Congress. That’s overrule.

Consider the following solution: using the Articles of Confederation as reference, we get back to state‐based rule. Keep in mind: fundamental human rights and interstate unity would be two things that need federal enforcement because we are still one nation. Also, any changes would be made using constitutional legal process (see Article 5, US Constitution). Congress would still be the legislative power. The judicial branch would stay about the same because we need justice‐oriented representation on all levels. All branches would have term limits and there would be no more unelected bureaucrats.

The portion that would take the hardest hit in change would be the executive branch. Consider this: instead of one president, the executive leadership would be a council of all 50 governors (elected by their state) with a chair and vice chair each from different parties who would be nationally elected. They would meet as needed to make decisions and would be able to ensure state‐to‐state representation and would make it impossible for a singular person’s agenda to be imposed on the nation.

Some of you may be asking: what about the military? What’s the proper way to go about the military if we don’t want a centralized government? I implore those people to read the Articles of Confederation as they lay it out perfectly. State based militaries who only to go to war on a united front and cannot make treaties without congressional consent and who must not make interstate treaties without the inclusion of the union.

There is a problem in America. Ill‐informed publics and executive overreach are those problems. While this proposal is not the only solution, it is my sincere hope that this proposal starts a dialogue. America was great and free. It can be again. There are many young people like myself who not only believe in a better America, but will strive to achieve one through public service and drive to make the world a better place.