As Tom mentioned this morning in this excellent piece, it sure feels as if whatever resistance there was to Trump during the past 8 years is evaporating. Most of those who haven’t decided to jump on the MAGA bandwagon just don’t want to hear about it. CNN reported yesterday that its latest poll shows that 72% of those polled say they’re paying little to no attention to Trump-related news.
I wrote about one early bright spot in all this a while back: the Blue State Governors. At the moment they seem to be the only ones showing a willingness to fight. Rolling Stone took a deep dive into their plans:
Among governors, [Illinois Governor] Pritzker has been out in front — positioning himself as the blue-state anti-Trump. The Hyatt hotel heir is a billionaire himself, worth nearly $4 billion, which counts as fuck-you money in an age when opposing Trump can carry significant costs, from increased security to the risk of retaliatory litigation, or “lawfare.”
In November, Pritzker launched a new organization, called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, that seeks to unify state-based opposition to Trump’s agenda. Unveiled with co-chair Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, GSD is built for “pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy,” Pritzker says. Polis expanded on the group’s purpose in an interview with Rolling Stone: “We’re all facing a potential onslaught; let’s pool together so we can share a common response.”
That “onslaught” includes Trump threats to revoke funding from states that don’t follow his reactionary agenda on erasing transgender identity from public education, or to block federal disaster aid from states that don’t loosen environmental protections. Safeguarding residents from ICE is also a priority. “We won’t cooperate with any federal efforts — especially illegal federal efforts that separate families — to deport hardworking, de facto Americans who’ve been here for decades,” Polis says. The group will also focus on “fortifying the institutions of democracy that our country and our states depend upon,” Pritzker says — whether that’s local election boards or state courts.
The governors group has not unveiled a roster of member states, but Rolling Stone has learned that more than 20 are involved. The group’s advisory board includes a formidable, bipartisan brain trust of former governors — Deval Patrick (D-Mass.), Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.), Bill Weld (R-Mass.), and Arne Carlson (R-Minn.) — as well as former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
GSD is currently probing how states can lock down databases to prevent the Trump administration from tracking undocumented immigrants who have received state driver licenses, for example, or from targeting activists who are arrested while protesting. Behind the scenes, GSD has been prepping states for the fallout from Supreme Court rulings that have undermined federal regulatory agencies, says Julia Spiegel, a former aide to Newsom who is GSD’s top administrator. “Anything from clean air and water to safe medication is potentially under attack now,” she says. “What are states going to do to create the regulatory infrastructure if the federal government is no longer going to be able to do it? Governors are working together to address these big questions — to make sure their state institutions can protect and provide the things of daily life that matter to people most.”
GSD is modeled on the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, which saw Democratic governors unite in defense of reproductive rights after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. That included organizing bulk purchases of abortion drugs — negotiated at a discount by the state with the largest purchasing power, California. The alliance also developed legislation, for introduction by member states, to safeguard the privacy of women who travel for abortion care and that of the doctors who treat them.
At the press conference launching GSD, Pritzker emphasized the need to remain agile and “swiftly respond to emerging threats.” Pressed for details, he insisted that a proposal by Trump adviser Stephen Miller to deploy National Guard troops from Republican-led states inside “unfriendly” blue states, as part of a mass deportation regime, represented “exactly the kind of question that [GSD] would be considering.” Pritzker insisted that the proposal was illegal — and Illinois “would certainly not cooperate.”
The article goes into the work among activists to hold them to it and it sounds like some serious organizing is going on at the state level.
I truly hope this is true. If these Governors are willing to be the leaders of resistance to Trump then, thank God. And good for the activists too. Somebody needs to do it. The Washington Dems appear to be paralyzed at the moment.
Obviously, many of these governors are planning to run for president so it’s even more gratifying if they’ve decided that going up against MAGA and Donald Trump is good for them and good for the party. I can’t say that I’m hearing much of that from anyone else.
Go Govs!
