Democratic governors, seeing rising threats, look beyond their borders [View all]

[RandySF]

Democratic state leaders see a federal government hamstrung to protect rights and see governors of red states pushing to restrict those rights. Some are alarmed and have spoken out. If you are looking for evidence of the concerns among Democrats about where the country is heading, look to the inaugural addresses of two blue-state governors — California’s Newsom and Illinois’s Pritzker.

“All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses, calling into question what America is to become, freer and fairer … or reverting to a darker past,” Newsom said. “Instead of finding solutions, these politicians [are] void of any new ideas, pursuing power at any cost, prey upon our fears and paranoias.”

Pritzker put it this way: “Our success as a state goes hand in hand with a determination to fight against a rising tide of hate … For some, the ugly voices that sing those discordant notes sound like siren calls. Their message is amplified by elected officials or political grifters who look to harness the tremendous power of hate for their own ambition.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting, Pritzker expanded on that theme. “They didn’t go away,” he said of those he sees as threats to democracy and people’s rights. “It’s not like we defeated them and they went home and we’re not going to hear from them again.”

But he noted that Democrats can do little where the GOP controls the executive and legislative branches of government in a state.

“They’re taking over their parties in every state,” Pritzker said. “That’s a Republican problem I can’t fix. What I can do is make sure that people understand what the Democrats stand for, not just in Illinois, but to be a beacon of Democratic values in the center of the country.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/11/democrats-republicans-culture-wars/