General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAbolish States
https://theap.substack.com/p/abolish-states?r=1fwc7*snip*
We of the commentariat are all running out of novel ways to say that the right considers only certain Americans to be legitimate participants in democratic politics, and that this consideration makes it futile to try to persuade or shame them into rejecting their antidemocratic tendencies or even admitting that that is the game they are playing. People who wish, for example, to give malapportioned state legislatures the power to appoint that states presidential electors also believe that malapportioning state legislatures is necessary to correct for the fact that too many people live in cities and vote for Democrats. It is not just that conservatives in power are guiding us toward some form of government the political scientists call managed democracy or competitive authoritarianism; it is that they have basically already implemented it at the state level in various places. The subgovernment form of state is, currently, the most effective tool for preventing actual democracy in the United States, and that fact is why conservatives are so dedicated to preserving the power of the states.
Oftentimes, conservatives, especially of the respectable columnist variety, will argue that the right has a preference for smallness over bigness, or something like that, basically saying it is authentically democratic and traditionally American to believe that the state government is closer to The People than the massive federal bureaucracy or out-of-touch Congressional leaders. Federalism is often defended in these small-vs-big terms; surely, they say, the government of Wyoming has a better sense of what is good for Wyoming than some Washington regulator or big-state senator.
Heres a sort of boilerplate version of that argument I found on the website of the Congressional Western Caucus1:
A fundamental principle of our Constitution is the belief that local governments are better suited to deal with local issues than a distant, out-of-touch federal government. State and local governments are closer to the people, more responsive to citizens, and better equipped for representing their constituents on many important issues. The Tenth Amendment explicitly states, "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. Recently, however, this tradition of constitutionally established local control has been seriously eroded due to usurpation of power by the federal government.
Or this from Ilya Somin in 2019: This is what the battle over federalism looked like in the United States for many decades: Conservatives sought to limit federal power over state and local governments, and liberals tried to expand it.
*snip*

bottomofthehill
(9,279 posts)Most of the insurrection caucus shockingly are members of the western caucus. I dont believe there are any democrats in the organization.
dchill
(42,660 posts)... and confederacy. Endit.
madville
(7,829 posts)When a republican administration is in the White House the rights of blue states become a lot more important on issues like immigration law enforcement, drugs, education, following environmental laws, etc.
Expanding the power of the federal government and diluting state rights could be disastrous under the next federal republican administration.
Folks on our side get this tunnel vision like its the end of the Republican Party, theyll never win another election, demographics are going to make them irrelevant etc, etc. Then they win again and return to power, its like Groundhog Day the movie.
ymetca
(1,182 posts)(especially "fly-over country" States) are dominated by a handful of obscenely rich people who own the politicians. ALEC, etc., were designed to weaken that grip (or else buy them off), in a concerted corporate effort resulting in the classic "race to the bottom" scenario we're now experiencing, which is continuing to erode the corporate tax base in States. More and more of the tax burden has been shoved onto individuals, and they are fed up.
So the whole Republican con-game at the D.C. level is to side with the so-called "little guy" (aka white, suburban and rural landowners) in decrying that the "problem" is those city-slickers sucking up all the money, when in reality, it's all going to fewer and fewer giant monopolies. Political leftists started pointing that out, and were making good headway in the electorate (especially after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown) so they were desperate to create some sort-of FDR type rich guy on the Right, and here comes the Trumpster fire!
Our corporate overlords couldn't care less about all the racist, hateful demagoguery, and continue to manipulate politicians in both parties, trying to keep the lid on the outrage as long as their ever-widening profit margins are maintained. The next financial crash, which is inevitable at this point, will give us the opportunity to either redress this fundamental inequality/planetary destruction deficit, or descend into fascist chaos.
What they haven't considered is the ongoing environmental destruction's increasing impact on everyday lives. They're moving too slow to react, and have no workable solutions that fit within their "drown big government in a bathtub" ideology (purely self-serving), which will slow the continuing devastation. Big government - really big government, on a massive, global scale - is required if we are to have any kind of hope of solving this problem. They thought they had time to monetize any solutions, and figure out a way to "privatize" the money (meaning stealing our tax dollars for more profits), but it is now spiraling out of control, and impossible to "fix" by some sales pitch merely preserving that status quo. Calving glaciers and super-storms just ain't gonna wait.
It's gonna get ugly from here on out.
Welcome to Chapel Perilous. Welcome to the end of humanity's adolescent phase.
Captain Zero
(8,525 posts)Should be a City State and have equal representation in Congress as Wyoming does.
That's my idea. But the cities would still remain parts of their current state.
Something like this.
Buckeyeblue
(6,060 posts)Especially given how disproportionate the states are. What is it we try to accomplish with states?