If you look at the United States as a collection of State governments, it makes perfect sense. I&#x27;m surprised you are confounded by that logic.<p>It was actually the most controversial issue during the Constitutional Convention (See &quot;The Great Compromise&quot;). And read up on the Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist debates.<p>One of the main points is to not give all federal power to the top 9-10 states. Otherwise you end up with the situation where a few large cities are deciding things at the national level and there is no representation for rural areas.<p>As an extremely over-simplified example, imagine urban voters voting to outlaw tractors because &quot;Tractors emit huge amounts pollution and nobody I know even uses a tractor! Those dirty farmers that I hear use them are dirtying up our air!&quot;