From Indivisible,org
“Issues like redistricting, voting rights, abortion access, police violence, and driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. States are often able to act more quickly than the federal government, which means that for the next few years, they will be the primary vehicle for positive progressive change — as well as being absolutely critical for long term progressive powerbuilding. In short, we need to conduct effective advocacy in our home states if we are ever going to achieve the transformational changes that we want to see.
How Are States Critical for The Resistance?
In a political climate where the federal government is controlled by an opposing party that is dead-set on attacking our values, it is critical that we exercise our power where we have the most leverage, which for some of us is actually at the state level. The implementation of federal policies often falls to the states, and and any harmful policies can be directly countered by state action. State legislatures can also proactively restore protections that have been undone by the Trump administration.
States allow us to go on offense. State policy allows the progressive movement to do more than just play defense — it allows us to demonstrate the ideals that we as progressives stand for: a clean environment, economic justice, health care for all, racial equity, a true representative democracy, gender and sexual equity, and civil rights. Enacting truly progressive policies is a form of resistance that isn’t possible in Washington for now because, as long as Trump is still in the White House, he won’t sign anything we want.
States are the model for progressivism. State legislatures are often the laboratory for leading edge policy change. Ideally, we would like our progressive ideals cemented into strong federal law, but we often need to prove their success at a more local level to build the evidence base and momentum for federal change. If we can successfully implement legislation based on progressive ideals at the state level, we provide a model for other state and national legislators to follow our lead.
State advocacy is necessary to “unrig” the system. The electoral system has been purposefully and unfairly stacked against Democrats at the state level via voter suppression and gerrymandering. To fully unrig the system, we’ll need to address many of these issues at the state level.
Constituents often have much more leverage at the state level. For a number of reasons, state legislators are less likely than Members of Congress to hear from their constituents on a given issue, and much more likely to hear from corporate and special interest lobbyists. However, this presents an opportunity: because state legislators often aren’t hearing directly from their constituents, a small amount of engagement can make a huge difference.
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1mo"Only 13 congresswomen have ever given birth while serving in office". Looking forward seeing that number grow exponentially! When women serve in congress, they make room for more women.