The 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Powers... reserved to the states... or the people: Until 1937, this amendment was used to keep Congress within limits in such things as regulation of commerce, enforcement of the fourteenth amendment, and laying and collecting taxes. Today, this protection has eroded. The Federal government exercises it's power through purse strings, by taking money from the people and corporations within the states and refusing to return it unless the states conform to Federal rules. By controlling money, the Federal government coerces obedience from the states in setting speed limits, defining crimes, setting criminal sentences and penalties, rasing drinking ages, and such things as wearing seat belts!!

Someone once said 'just because you don't have an interest in politics, doesn't mean that politics doesn't have an interest in you'.