Political Strategy

The challenge for progressives from this “states rights” movement is not that any of these laws are likely to survive in court, but that conservatives too often get away with claiming to stand for constitutional values without significant challenge from progressives.  The reality is that the right wing has no credibility in promoting their states’ rights arguments and should be challenged more directly.  As this Dispatch will outline, their arguments fail on multiple grounds:

• First, conservative constitutional history is dead wrong.  The progressive vision of collaborative federalism between federal and state governments clearly reflects the “original intent” of the Constitution’s creators  – including those who promoted the Constitutional Amendments enacted throughout our history.
• Second, conservative leaders are constitutional hypocrites, talking about “states rights” even as they support federal laws that restrict state authority in order to protect corporate special interests. 
• Finally, unlike conservatives, progressives practice real respect for state authority by promoting and supporting state innovation and flexibility, a far more compelling practice of federalism than the rigid and false constitutional doctrine promoted by the right wing.

 

A recently passed bill in North Carolina will require mental health parity as part of health coverage; an achievement all should applaud. All except the State Policy Network, an alliance of right-wing "think" tanks. They'd rather complain about the cost mental health coverage would lead to, and mock the treatment of such disorders as pyromania of hypochondriasis.

As the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) comes up for reauthorization in Congress, the Right is working fervently to quash any expansion of the program. What's wrong with health care for children, you ask? Conservatives know that each successful expansion of SCHIP proves the viability of government health programs. Contrast that to voters' experience in the private health insurance arena and suddenly health care for all gains more public support. So the right-wing is grasping at straws to offer market-based alternatives that would funnel more money into the same failing system.

If you think Wal-Mart wages are bad in the US, try working for their stores in Mexico. Child grocery baggers at their supermarkets throughout Mexico are paid exactly... nothing. That's right; they receive no pay despite Wal-Mart de Mexico's $1.1 billion in profits last year. Wal-Mart refers to these workers as "volunteer packers" and encourages gratuity from customers. Aside from being a heinous practice, what does this have to do with labor in the U.S.?

As Congress debates the last steps needed to pass historic comprehensive health care reform, state legislators around the country have sent a letter to President Obama and Congress to urge them to complete the process and pass the health care reforms needed by the American people. The letter below, written on behalf of over 1000 legislators organized by the Progressive States Network in support of comprehensive reforms, urges that any compromises between the Senate and House use the majority vote process of reconciliation to circumvent obstruction through the use of a filibuster.

This body of over 1000 state legislators supporting federal reform stands in contrast to the smaller group of legislators organized by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who issued a press release last week opposing reform, yet propose no solutions for the American people other than their own obstruction.  Given the corporate cash driving ALEC's agenda and that representatives of the insurance industry sit on the ALEC task force executive committee writing its model legislation, it's hardly a surprise that ALEC seeks to defend the status quo of industry profiteering at the expense of American families.

Even as federal reform moves forward, the letter below emphasizes that state legislative leaders across the country continue to promote needed state reforms and stand ready to implement federal reforms in the states as soon as Congress enacts the legislation.