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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,063 posts)
Tue Apr 21, 2020, 01:13 PM Apr 2020

Comment: Their constitutions put states in charge for reason

By Liz Covart / The Washington Post

Forty-two states, three counties, nine cities, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have ordered residents to close physical locations for nonessential businesses and to stay at home to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. These orders disrupt lives and threaten livelihoods; and have stirred conservative protests.

On Friday, President Donald Trump’s tweets to “LIBERATE MINNESOTA,” LIBERATE MICHIGAN” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” further fueled discontent with these orders.

In many ways, Trump is invoking a key characteristic of American identity: weariness of strong government. But there is another equally important American tradition that he is disregarding: the revolutionary idea that governance of the nation should come from the states. Known as antifederalists by the late 1780s, these Americans believed the best response to too much government power was to vest more power in state governments. They considered state governments as governments of the people, the type of governments where the people are most heard and the form of government best thought to enact measures for the public good.

The fate of our Covid-19 response seems to depend on whether this early constitutional tradition can keep enough Americans at home to sufficiently slow the spread of the coronavirus; and calm the partisan flames the president is attempting to stir.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-their-constitutions-put-states-in-charge-for-reason/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=3b899bce38-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-3b899bce38-228635337

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