I have always been ambivalent about American federalism. I know that many in the legal community, including Supreme Court Justices who came after him, agreed with Justice Brandeis that federalism encourages the states to be “laboratories of democracy,” but I also know that many states–including the one I inhabit–use “states’ rights” as their defense against compliance with national rules, especially– but certainly not exclusively–the extension of civil liberties to their own citizens.
The election of Donald Trump, however, has made me a federalism fan.
In a recent opinion piece, Jennifer Rubin focused on the possibilities for resistance that our federalist system provides to Blue state governors in the face of Trump’s assault on rational federal governance.
The positive news: Governors are constitutionally empowered and morally obligated to check the federal government and fill the gaps where the federal government has abandoned vulnerable people. They will be the last line of defense against an irresponsible and reckless Trump administration.
Fortunately, an extraordinary batch of Democratic governors including Tim Walz of Minnesota, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Maura Healey of Massachusetts appear ready to both protect their residents from a reckless administration and offer an alternative vision that benefits average Americans.
Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, told the New York Times, “States in our system have a lot of power — we’re entrusted with protecting people, and we’re going to do it.” He added, “They can expect that we’re going to show up every single time when they try to run over the American people.”
What can states do to counter what Rubin calls Trump’s “grab bag of crackpots?” His bizarre choice of RNK, Jr., who has declared war on medicine, is joined by his pick for secretary of defense, a man who doesn’t appear to believe in germs, and a nominee to head up Medicare who championed the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, (Her column appeared before the CEO of the Wide World of Wrestling was chosen to head up the Department of Education.)
In the face of growing evidence that Trump intends to decimate the federal government, what can governors do? According to Rubin, plenty. With respect to health issues,
they can stockpile vaccines and abortion medications, offer medical school students from red states a transfer to their schools, loosen rules for telemedicine, ease requirements to license doctors accredited elsewhere, reiterate vaccine requirements for schoolchildren (and fund free vaccine programs for vulnerable communities), expand their own health departments and pool resources to fund medical research. In short, they can develop an alternative model of responsible health-care governance.
Governors’ actions can go well beyond healthcare. If Trump’s government tries to enforce his promises to roll back overtime and worker safety rules, governors can enforce state laws protecting workers. They can defend the environment by bringing a steady stream of litigation to protect air, water and natural resources. (Rubin notes that Democracy Forward, a legal group formed after Trump’s 2016 win, has built a “multimillion-dollar war chest and marshaled more than 800 lawyers to press a full-throated legal response across a wide range of issues.”)
On other fronts, they can sue to enforce consumer protection rules or challenge coercive action depriving states of federal funds. (States filed roughly 160 suits against the first Trump administration.) Bob Ferguson, Washington’s Democratic attorney general and governor-elect, recently said that, according to Associated Press, “offices of Democratic attorneys general have been in touch for months to talk about how to push back against Trump’s policies.” They also can maintain strict gun safety regulations, bring suits against gun manufacturers and fund research on gun violence….
To promote democracy, they can offer enhanced civics education, public media literacy programs and public service requirements for high school and college graduates. And, as leading legal minds have been arguing for some time, they can creatively expand multistate compacts on everything from “social services delivery; child placement; education policy; emergency and disaster assistance; corrections, law enforcement, and supervision; professional licensing; water allocation; land use planning; environmental protection and natural resources management; and transportation and urban infrastructure management.” A new entity, Governors Safeguarding Democracy, may be just the vehicle to facilitate this activity.
Finally, Rubin notes that governors can counter the right-wing media ecosphere by highlighting the damage caused by anti-family, anti-child and anti-life MAGA policies.
Rather obviously, Red state governors won’t take such measures, so the resistance won’t be uniform. But it will be instructive. And it will offer Americans options– places to relocate to if and when their own state’s compliance with the wrecking crew becomes too onerous.
Thank you for explaining these benefits. Thank you for giving us something to shout at Braun when he fails at his duties.
Six governors out of fifty. We don’t have enough blue states, and we can’t all just pack up and move to one of them. I’m encouraged by the effort, but here I am in jolly old Indiana.
Quite obviously our governor elect Braun will toe the MAGA line , in lock step with the Donald and supported by our Republican super majority in the state legislature. How unfortunate. Look for a major brain drain from the Hoosier state to the nearby blue states. All that is stopping me is my advanced age and family ties. For now!
Yes, we need ALL blue state governors to step up for their citizens. Colorado is deep blue with rural red areas – except for Colorado Springs which is deep red. Newsome in California will do his duty as will the governors in Oregon and Washington.
But Trump will try to impose his will on these blue states by using the military – or so he says – to round up those dastardly immigrants and spend billions to export them to … who knows where. What if the “receiving” nations say “NO” you can’t land them here? What if the state National Guards actually step up and defend the people of their states against the troops sent in by the idiots?
Say, isn’t this how civil wars get started?
There fortunately are more than six. You didn’t mention California, New Mexico, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, whose Democratic governors will likely join in any multi state compacts to ward off attempts by the next administration to harm those who live in their states.
There may even be a state or two with Republican governors that might get into the fight. New Hampshire comes to mind, in spite of Sununu’s capitulation to Orange Jesus. Their state motto is “Live free or die!” Does that sound like a state that will allow their people to be subjected to maltreatment by outsiders? If we all fight together, we can survive.
To have a “Blue State” you need at least a governor and a super-majority of the legislature. Of course, having the state supreme court is a cherry on top. Not sure how many of those states there are…
Also, what’s to stop the new Federal government from challenging some/all in the good ol US Supreme Court?
And….at 10,000 feet…does this supercharge us into the Blue States of America/Red States of America permanently divided country?
There is no doubt that the next Trump era, however long it lasts, will damage our allegiance to the Constitution and human rights.
However, many states along the West Coast and much of the Northeast can largely withdraw from the Union. That’s more than one-third of the nation’s GDP.
The question is how far to withdraw?
Perhaps it can open up a middle ground between moving out of the country and taking back the whole country. Immigration within the country solves some logistics problems that come with immigration for some people.
This is not the miracle that some in red states wish for, but we don’t always get what we want.
Our future may depend heavily on how badly 45’s clown show mucks up things that affect his blue collar and less educated believers. Deep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ hospitals and disability payments, an and a Republican Recession or even a Republican Depression could undo the Chief Kakistrocrat’s hold on his followers. The sad thing is that getting to that point would follow serious damage to our governmental structures and the welfare of millions… not to mention our loss of global status and authority.
The MAGATs of the Heartland are cheering on Trump’s appointments to run the federal government. They are saying, “This is exactly what they want!” They are undereducated fools. Most of them have retained about a 5th-grade education.
I encountered a male group from the Hoosier cult yesterday who obviously didn’t know the difference between biological sex and gender. The more they argued that they knew the difference, the more obvious they hadn’t a clue. Unless a miracle happens, these Heartland cult members aren’t going to change.
It’s good that blue state governors are preparing themselves for Trumpism and Project 2025, but they are in the minority. While young folks might want to leave for bluer states, demand has pushed up prices dramatically in those markets. Even within red states, a migration toward a cheaper cost of living is taking place. Asheville market is so expensive that a married couple can’t afford a home unless they both have highly paid jobs. Many of the residents go in and buy homes together, so they aren’t spending too much of their wages on housing expenses.
Also, while nobody was paying attention, forty-nine of fifty states have become at-will states. An employer can fire any employee for any excuse whatsoever. Facial tattoos or a pampered entitled Karen, you’re gone!
Way too many people believe Trump will wreck democracy, but it’s been an oligarchy since our inception. The really sad part is through propaganda, the oligarchy has won over a large majority of Americans in the center of the USA. Only the Coastal Elites look blue, and many are pro-Democratic Party blue, which folded its cards to the oligarchy a long time ago.
Besides the personality clashes in Washington, it will be interesting to watch how federalism impacts the distribution of monies between red and blue states. Blue areas are typically provider states or areas, while red states are takers, like Indiana. Last I checked, Indiana received over 40% of their income budget from the federal government. If Trump starts slashing the federal government, how will it impact the red states like Hoosierville? 😉
I’m glad to hear about Governors Safeguarding Democracy and Democracy Forward, but, as I am, and many of you, are, in places that deny global warming, the island of Qikiqaruk, off the Yukon peninsula, is literally sloughing off land into the sea, as permafrost melts, and the damage the Orange idiot will cause will still be horrid…. https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-guardian-australia/20241122/281706915227194
The good news is the certainty that chaos will rule DC. That will have the same impact as disorganized workers have on their employers because chaos doesn’t work; nothing gets done.
Trump will play his “The Apprentice” role and everyone at the Whitehouse and in the Cabinet will be randomly replaced often.
Chaos = stasis.
It was announced a few days ago Mike Braun is selecting 8 state level cabinet members to his new executive branch of the governor’s office. Why?
I imagine Braun is planning for our state to be independent from the federal government. I imagine that Micah will get his wish and women/girls will not be allowed to travel outside of the state without prior authorization.
I’m sure our mom’s for liberty are already having zoom meetings to begin plans for the Bluebonnet Texas sunday school curriculum, as is Braun s pick for secretary of education.
There’s quite a bit of doom and gloom coming as well as some protective measures. I can Invision the worst case scenarios for a future staying in Indiana, and one where I leave before it all goes to shit but how and when is the moment to get out before it’s to late.
The maga ts have complained Braun wasn’t in Washington to stop the Senate from approving judges, Braun doesn’t need to worry because he knows the Heritage Supreme Court is going to establish new precedent for their christian nationalist constitution. Braun doesn’t need to be in Washington.
While the maga elite are partying on Jan 20, i truly believe they are going to begin the raids in the cover of darkness Jan 21 in the early hours.
govenors can do all this and more. but the free enterprise system says no. I lived in Calif during the 70s. reagans plans were to decimate the labor movement and building trades. the building trade owners,carpenters etc, got a so called contractors lic,non union and hired whoever.many buisnesses went to neighboring states to continue manfg. Carson City Nv was a reciepient of such a buisness grab. musk rat knows. we can protect the locals, and help with every aspect of living in any state,until the backlash. many employers will leave states that dont follow their needs over their employees.simple, ive been there, close the doors and leave. usually with no notice,no check. Mayo clinic damn near did a about face on Walz. and was going outta state with 5 billion dollar project,even he had to secumb to their threats over minimum wage gurantees. theres still the fact, will the rest of the states impose a tarriff on goods shipped to another,outlander state? far fetched, but after 11/5 seems anything is possible. one last effort, the migrant issue. Ill stand with them,and help,where i can. but, if like the pot industries issue with banking, will the blue states become running a criminal enterprise by allowing migrants to use local banks, and will employers be subject to federal prosicution for paying them a wage? question… how many families are now going to be split up over this bigots nation? I have friend who are a target,You?
Helen:
Braun cannot make Indiana independent of the federal government without substantial increases in taxes. We get around 40% of our income from the federal government. In fact, except for a few, most red states are net federal government users.
That’s where blue states have the advantage. They provide excess money to the federal government. What will they do with that advantage in the next four years? Also, if Trump/Musk cuts the federal government too much, red states be hurt the most if the money spigot dries up. LOL
Todd
I don’t think the repubs at the top care if Indiana loses those funds. Indiana government nor it’s voters care about the social services that money provides. The people all believe they will be better on their own and they are going to get exactly that from the incoming admin. I worked at a restaurant attached to the state house, being that I was bussing tables at lunch the repubs didn’t see me or realize I was listening, the way in which they would talk about the regular people of Indiana was appalling. There’s reasons they have continuously lowered our academic standards.
Everything we know about the US now will not be the same come Jan 21.
I hate what we will be leaving our children. I don’t expect life to be so easy for them. I sure don’t want to go back to no electricity, no inside plumbing and all of the creature comforts that we have become use too! Heaven help us all!
Braun is a Trump follower extraordinaire, but Trump tariffs on Chinese, Mexican, and Canadian trade will devastate our manufacturing, farm, and food economies for resident Hoosier businesses and families AND torpedo our state budget. Inflation will rise again and impact all of us negatively.
Add to that massive deportations, and inflation and shortages are likely to explode and with it, the future of the GOP. Bring on the midterm elections.
Sometimes the voting public has to learn hard lessons the hard way.