Interesting article
Progressives have lost power in Washington. Every national institution now lies in the hands of the Republican Party. Given the slim chances of Democrats’ winning back Congress in 2018, many think that the best progressives can do is hunker down for the next four years, blocking legislation on the Hill and challenging it in court. It’s a depressing picture for those on the left. No one wants to be a member of a party whose “victories” are all in the kill, whose only role in national politics is that of the gadfly.
But if progressives can simply look outside the Beltway, they will find that they still have access to one of the most powerful weapons in politics: federalism. Using the power they wield in states and cities across the country, progressives can do a good deal more than mourn and obstruct. They can resist Washington overreach, shape national policies, and force the Republicans to compromise. Cities and states have long been at the center of the fight over national values. And it’s time progressives recognized that federalism isn’t just for conservatives.
Unfortunately, the moment one mentions federalism many progressives stop listening. The language of “states’ rights” has an ugly history, invoked to shield slavery and Jim Crow. Federalism’s checkered past led political scientist William H. Riker to remark in 1964 that “if one disapproves of racism, one should disapprove of federalism.” Even today, many progressives think of federalism as a parochial anachronism, better suited for stymieing change than for effecting it.
But they are making a mistake. This is not your father’s federalism. These days, state and local governments are often led by dissenters and racial minorities, the two groups progressives think have the most to fear from federalism. And this has allowed them to not only take advantage of the enormous power that federalism confers within their own cities and states, but to affect national debates, influence national policy, and force national actors to the bargaining table. Their success shows that federalism is a neutral and powerful tool for change, not an intrinsically conservative quirk of U.S. government.
https://democracyjournal.org/magazin...a-users-guide/