Fifteen states, home to 123 million people, have “Democratic trifectas”: Democrats control the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature. Democrats control two of the three in another five states, home to an additional 37 million people. In a heavily overlapping geography, 22 states and the District of Columbia have a Democratic attorney general. In other words, roughly half of America’s population lives in states where Democrats have far more power than they do on Capitol Hill.
Empower state agencies to do what the feds won’t. Trump’s dismantling of the parts of the federal government that protect ordinary Americans may be the place where blue states can most readily respond. From housing discrimination to consumer protection to environmental preservation, legislators should give state agencies the authority and resources necessary to take enforcement action and protect their people. And with the crack-up of federal public health infrastructure, blue states should expand information sharing between their health departments and fund multistate consortiums, so vital disease tracking and response efforts can continue across state borders.
Supercharge state attorneys general. Democratic A.G.s are already fighting and winning in court to stop or slow down some of the most draconian actions by the Trump administration. But this represents a massive new line of work that could extend into any number of policy areas, and blue states should be providing their attorneys general with significant new resources to litigate on every front.
One obvious way: increasing corporate income taxes that are tied to in-state sales rather than a company’s physical presence. Increases could be structured to go into effect if and when states are hit by federal funding cuts. This would have the added benefit of putting direct pressure on some of the billionaires whose support, or at least acquiescence, Trump depends on. Another, more nuclear, option being proposed in Maryland and New York would withhold state payments to the federal government when Trump refuses to disburse funds owed to the state in contravention of a court decision. This is not a distant hypothetical. Less than two weeks after Trump took office, a federal court issued a restraining order against his administration’s massive funding freeze, and a week after that, the judge in the case said that the administration was ignoring his order as states still couldn’t access funds they were due for infrastructure projects.
We are in uncharted—and, indeed, impossible to chart—territory. The net effect of an all-out fight in the states will be to protect people from very real threats posed by Trump and his minions—and to give Democrats something to rally around between now and the time we can try to wrest back control of Congress and more effectively confront Trump at the federal level.
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