When the Republicans started arguing for small government it didn’t take long to parse what that meant. It pretended to be an originalist argument that would take America back to the duties assigned to the federal government and to the states in the US Constitution. It was actually a plan to take over the US government.
At the founding, Southern states were full of wealthy planters who were involved in a triangular trade with England and Africa and Jamaica involving rum, sugar, slaves, and tobacco (actually two triangles were operating). Northerners caved to Southerners allowing states to be more independent than many would have liked. State’s rights began early. George Washington (a slave owner who always said he wanted to get rid of his slaves) was our first president as we all know. Washington favored a strong central government, and each side of the argument had a large faction behind them. These were insights from Ron Chernow’s books on Washington and on Alexander Hamilton. The future role of the federal government was discussed in The Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. A strong central government won but those who fought for state’s rights never gave up.
In the Civil War the issue of State’s Rights came up again during the Reconstruction when freed black men tried to vote. The South wanted free rein to treat freed black slaves as they wished. They did not want black men to vote or get elected to public office and they didn’t mind resorting to violence to keep them from gathering in protest or to stop them from voting. There were bloody confrontations with local sheriffs and hastily deputized white townspeople in many Southern towns. At first the federal government tried to step in to protect the black folks. But when Lincoln was assassinated, and Andrew Johnson took over as president he wanted to welcome southern states back into the union and he vetoed laws passed by Congress. He could not interfere with the Fourteenth Amendment which had to be passed in the states, but progress on the amendment was slow at first. He was impeached in the House but not convicted in the Senate, but he did not win a second term. He brought chaos to the US government just when cooler heads were needed most.
Later in 1878, Rutherford B. Hayes passed the Posse Comitatus law that gave local sheriffs power over towns and cities. This left federal troops powerless to defend black folks in the South against local terrorists, especially the KKK. The Insurrection Act of 1807 had already given permissions to use federal troops to put down a rebellion, but these laws were useless in the face of Southern aggressions against freed slaves. Posse Comitatus laws took precedence over the Insurrection Act and this left freed black people at the mercy of the local landowners who were free to wreak vengeance for their losses in the war. Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant offers a graphic account of violence during Reconstruction. These laws still exist and were used to keep Trump at bay when he wanted to send the US military against protesters in Washington DC on the day he appeared with the upside-down Bible.
When the modern Republican Party started going on about state’s rights, we understood the connection to the Civil War, and we understood that the originalist argument for state’s rights would obliterate every law passed after 1789. We thought it was just crazy talk, but now our mild reactions are proving to be dangerous underreactions. The Republicans have been putting together an alliance of states who get to make the laws they want as long as they pass muster with Republican doctrine. Once Trump was accepted into the fold state laws had to pass muster with Trump. Now state laws have to outdo Trump, they have to be outrageous enough to win the praise of Trumpers. Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma are topping each other with each new law.
Republicans, Evangelicals, and Catholics wooed the states by promising that they could pass laws they wished. They knew that many states could deliver Republican governors and Republican legislatures. They even had ALEC write legislation for state governments to pass into law exactly as written. They promised states that they could pass whatever voting laws they wanted now that preclearance was gone, that they could pass any laws about abortion that they wanted, and that they would not have to obey environmental laws passed by the federal government as those laws were not constitutional according to the duties of the federal government as described in our original documents. They did not have to obey laws about gay rights or even gay marriage, although they don’t quite have control over those laws yet. They could make laws about what happens in public schools. They could opt out of expanded Medicare. They could have all the guns they wanted and take them with them everywhere, without permits. Now that the Supreme Court is full of judges handpicked by The Federalist Society, state laws that defy federal law can stand, even laws that turn citizens into vigilantes. State’s rights are being magnified every day.
Many of us have worried about the state’s rights movement but we have neglected to take this as seriously as we should have. There are now between thirteen and twenty-six states that can operate as a political bloc to keep the federal government in Republican hands and prevent Democrats from passing any new government programs to help Americans who have been blocked by racism or other prejudice from accumulating wealth and power. They can block immigration, use Hispanic, Cuban and Latino fears of Communism and Socialism to get people to vote for Republicans, and they can use the issues related to immigration to keep America white, Christian, and conservative. They cannot block everything blue states favor yet, but they are almost there. If they can hold Congress until 2024 and then put Trump or a Trump-like governor back in the Executive, they can finish their coup and make our republic anything they want it to be.
Today in Politico there is an article called “Secret Recordings Reveal Republican Precinct Strategy.” The ‘Republican Allied States of America” and Republicans in blue states are finding ways to flood polling places with partisan poll workers of all types. They are advertising for people to run to fill these spots.
From the Politico article:
INSIDE THE RNC’S ELECTION DAY ‘ARMY’ — Heidi Przybyla has an enormously important and carefully reported article for POLITICO that just went live: “‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections”
Przybyla obtained video recordings of GOP operatives assembling a disturbing multipronged network of party loyalists that could cause chaos on Election Day. She documents evidence of four different networks being created:
1. Poll workers steeped in 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories who are being trained to contest votes, especially in Democrat-heavy areas.
2. GOP lawyers who the poll workers can quickly connect with to document alleged voter fraud.
3. “Party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts.”
4. “Installing party loyalists on the Board of Canvassers, which is responsible for certifying the election, also appears to be part of the GOP strategy.”
We never thought of state’s rights possibly leading to an American Red State NATO-like alliance or perhaps an axis of evil, but that seems to be exactly what we have got.
This is a very consequential election coming up in 2022 and Democrats really need to win it, but we also can see how deeply the deck is stacked against us. If only the DOJ understood the implications of what Republicans are doing.
Wake up America and vote against this state’s rights strategy. Although Republicans are using this strategy to win in elections, they also back an all-powerful executive, essentially turning our federal government into a dictatorship. Trump already showed us what an all-powerful executive (president) might look like. Imagine if someone who was more subtle, and smarter was handed the reins of the US government and given complete authority that could not be questioned.
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