Don't let coronavirus failures shake your faith in federalism.
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t seen problems of government spring up anew; they’ve only caught up with us.
By Laurence H. Tribe
'In times as dark as these, it can be tempting to wonder whether the American experiment has failed. New York digs mass graves as though out of Boccaccio’s most ashen imaginings; the president of the United States just recommended we all inject cleaning solvent. More than a crisis of the times, this episode feels like a calamitous failure of government. How is it that our national stockpiles were left to languish, our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was slashed and left to ossify, and our experts’ wise counsel ignored, our alarm bells silenced?
For some, this is symptomatic of a federal system already broken — “outdated,” as Richard Krietner recently opined, an 18th-century dream more papier-mâché than proper governance. As Kreitner bewails, “Neither the paralyzed, sclerotic central government” nor our “arbitrarily determined States” have been able to tackle the crisis laid at our feet. He recommends a radical overhaul of the system — disintegration into loosely cooperative regional networks à la the failed Articles of Confederation — and, in effect, its abandonment altogether.
Such radical solutions might be mere doomsayings, but their premise simply isn’t true. To misconstrue this moment as the death knell of federalism dangerously misunderstands how the pandemic has showcased federalism’s versatility, resilience, and strength. As these endless months have stretched on, American federalism has flexed its institutional muscles not in a hapless rendering of Trump’s ego projects, but squarely in the common defense.
Sclerotic central government? Sclerotic indeed. The failures of the current administration are numerous and plain: As death tolls rose, our self-proclaimed “king of ventilators” smarted against expert advice and peddled the trite, insincere denial of a Neville Chamberlain or a frightened caudillo. Trump’s charge in this crisis — for which he has since claimed “no responsibility” — is to coordinate an informed national plan, gather manpower and funds, make full use of the Defense Production Act, and negotiate meaningfully for supplies on the international market. Unsurprisingly, he has only dithered and deflected.
However, as evidenced by flattening death curves in states like California, Washington, and Ohio, federalism saves states sufficient authority to accrue some of these things on their own. This includes plenary power over their resources — emergency reserves, strategic stockpiles, and taxing powers — and freedom to negotiate with the private sector. Governor Gavin Newsom of California has made impressive use of his executive authority to enter into strategic partnerships with private sector entities from hotels and hospitals to Silicon Valley and the AARP. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington was the first in the nation to declare a state of emergency, granting him access to important special prerogatives and sources of funding within his state’s constitutional scheme — including various emergency planning reserves and operations facilities, emergency powers necessary to implement social distancing, and emergency funds for field hospitals and quarantine centers.
The regional sovereignty of state administrations, agencies, and civil service provides a space to accrue localized institutional experience.'>>>
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/27/opinion/not-learning-wrong-lessons-coronavirus/?
