How can the federal government impact you more, when anything from building permits, roads, garbage collection impact your daily life regularly?

The last mayor of my city decided to make the entirety of the fields in front of my house (in Italy, countryside near Rome) buildable and completely ruined the view from my house and filled it with traffic.

> If the pendulum can swing so broadly ever 4 years I'd better watch it, right?

Honest question: If, other than voting every 4 years, you have no ability to impact change, why spend the time watching it? Why not spend the time doing something more constructive that you have the ability to impact? (aside from prior to the election to inform voting, of course)