Let’s face it.  Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels.  They will not—­and they should not—­continue to tolerate the gap between promise and performance in government.

The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence.

If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places.  That way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen—­and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America.

The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and for every one of us.

As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in America, as the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land.

Whether it is the workingman who feels neglected, the black man who feels oppressed, or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a growing feeling that “Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.”

Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out—­asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter?

And so let us answer them.  Let us say to them and let us say to all Americans, “We hear you.  We will give you a chance.  We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future—­a chance to participate in government—­because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community.”

The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become.  And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell.

I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D.C., is inevitably more wise, more honest, and more efficient than government at the local or State level.  The honesty and efficiency of government depends on people.  Government at all levels has good people and bad people.  And the way to get more good people into government is to give them more opportunity to do good things.

The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local governments is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves.  This notion is completely foreign to the American experience.  Local government is the government closest to the people, it is most responsive to the individual person.  It is people’s government in a far more intimate way than the Government in Washington can ever be.

People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them.