The Best Way to Stop Trump Is at the Local Level

[DesertRat]

JOY-ANN REID 12.02.16 10:01 PM ET

Republicans, led by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the incoming president (as signaled by his Billionaire’s Club Cabinet picks), are set to unleash long-stored plans to gut and privatize Medicare, repeal 20 million Americans’ health insurance through Obamacare, flush what’s left of the Voting Rights Act and push for the privatization of public schools. That means congressional Democrats now have clear marching orders: beat back the coming GOP push to repeal of the 20th century.

But there’s something else Democrats ought to be focused on as they prepare for the long, dark years ahead. It involves trading in a bit of the beloved Hamilton for a dash more of the less morally appealing Thomas Jefferson and embracing what the Yale scholar Heather Gerken has called “progressive federalism.”

For decades, conservatives have argued against the heavy hand of Washington on the states; embracing the idea of each state as a kind of mini-country, only loosely overseen by the federal government. Liberals have argued the opposite—that without a strong central governing hand, the states would devolve into a disaggregated mess whereAmericans’ rights, opportunities and even their health and life expectancy vary wildly from New York to Mississippi, with the results heavily freighted by race.

But after the disaster election of 2016, in which the majority (2.5 million more votes for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump and counting) will not get the president they chose, and will instead be stuck with an erratic, narcissistic, Twitter-beef-starting Russian handmaiden in the White House and a Dickensian novel full of plutocrats running his administration; with potentially disastrous results for voting rights, healthcare, public schools and more; it may be time for Democrats to embrace their inner federalist.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/03/the-best-way-to-stop-trump-is-at-the-local-level.html

[bigtree]

1. true

...states are going to need to turn their back on some federal dollars and just refuse to go along with the Trump policy regressions, much like republican-dominated states have done with Pres. Obama.

[kimbutgar]

2. San Francisco is revising its budget now in anticipation of federal funding cuts.

[lonestarnot]

3. Ah yes, austerity for us, more billions for them.