The GOP is going hog-wild in the states. If only Democrats in D.C. did the same.

The GOP is going hog-wild in the states. If only Democrats in D.C. did the same.

Washington Post

Opinion by 

Paul Waldman

Columnist

May 27, 2021 at 2:02 a.m. GMT+9

Ask any Republican in Washington and they’ll tell you they are standing amidst a rushing river of progressive policy changes, desperately trying to hold back the socialist onslaught emanating from the Biden administration and congressional Democrats.

But the truth is that the months since Biden took office and Democrats won total control of Congress has been characterized by a remarkable degree of restraint.

If you want to see what it looks like when a party really uses its power, you have to turn your gaze to the state level, particularly in a few places where Republicans have firm control of state government despite enjoying only tenuous majorities of support among the voters.

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Nowhere is this more evident than in Texas, where Republicans are right now engaged in a bacchanal of far-right legislating. Here’s some of what they’ve passed through one or both houses of the state legislature in recent days:

A bill allowing anyone over 21 without a felony record to carry a handgun, with no permit, background check, or training required.

A bill that bans abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant.

A “trigger” bill that would ban nearly all abortions, including those resulting from rape and incest, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

A bill that would require a voter initiative if a city with over 1 million residents (of which there are four in Texas, all run by Democrats) tried to reduce its police budget by even a single dollar; another bill would financially punish any city of over 250,000 that reduced its police budget.

A bill mandating that any school that is donated a sign reading “In God We Trust” must display it in “a conspicuous place in each building of the school.”

A bill forcing pro sports teams to play the national anthem at every game.

A bill aimed at banning schools from discussing critical race theory.

A bill forbidding cities from banning the use of natural gas in new construction.

A bill dictating how the state’s largest counties distribute their polling places, which would have the effect of reducing the number of polling places in many Democratic areas and increasing them in many Republican areas.

One of the most aggressive voter suppression bills seen anywhere this year.

I believe in Texas they refer to that as “going hog-wild.”

It’s not just Texas, either — this combination of purely symbolic right-wing legislation (mandating the national anthem be played) and bills that could have powerful practical effects (voter suppression, encouraging further gun proliferation) is being repeated in state after state.

And while it happens in states that won’t elect Democrats any time soon, often it’s places like Texas, Arizona, or Georgia — where Republicans are in charge but may not be for long — where legislators are passing bills to assure their base that they’ll make their state as inhospitable to liberals as possible. In many cases that means targeting liberal cities (every conservative state has a few) in an attempt to deprive them of the ability to make their own rules.

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You’ll struggle to find an analogy on the other side, cases where Democratic state legislatures have enacted a frenzy of extreme leftist legislation. The closest thing is what has happened in Virginia after Democrats took control of the legislature in 2019 — but in that case a change in power precipitated the legislative push, as the state party finally could act on pent-up policy demands.

Which raises the question: Why now? Why are Republicans in state legislatures so eager to push the limits in 2021?

One answer may lie in the nationalization of politics at every level. Now all politics is about the two parties and their contrasting visions, all the way down to the race for dog catcher.

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So a state Republican Party — especially in a state like Texas that is trending more Democratic — will decide that feeding the base red meat to keep them energized seems like the way to keep a hold on power, especially when Democrats are in charge at the federal level.

Now imagine if Democrats in Congress were that aggressive with their new power. President Biden would have triumphant ceremonies signing new laws that would expand abortion access, guarantee voting rights, create a public health insurance option, and much more.

But what laws has Biden actually signed? There has been one major piece of legislation, the covid relief bill. And some smaller bills — for instance, a bill that adds sesame to the list of major allergens for the purposes of food labeling. You may have missed that one.

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But all told, Biden has signed only 14 bills into law this year.

The biggest reason is of course the Senate filibuster. In the House, Democrats have passed some significant bills, including statehood for Washington, DC, and electoral reform, but without a change to the filibuster, the chances any will become law are somewhere between slim and none.

Yet most of those bills are quite popular — and in any case, they constitute the clear agenda with which Democrats won the White House and Congress.

In the states, Republicans are saying, “We’d better pass every last thing we’ve ever wanted.” But in Washington, many Democrats act as though the most important thing is to be cautious and not do too much. Maybe they should learn from those Republicans.

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