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The New War Between the States


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Claremont Review of Books

Trumpism has enjoyed a second life at the state level.
Charles R. Kesler

Spring 2023

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Forced to spend enormous time and energy defending its right to make policy, however, the Trump Administration ended up making less policy overall, or at least left less of a policy imprint, than its loyal supporters might have expected. Its own internal derangements contributed to the shortfall. Denied a second term, Trumpian ambitions and policies might have been expected to languish in Mar-a-Lago along with Trump himself.

Instead, something rather unexpected happened. Trumpism enjoyed a second life, indeed a vigorous resurgence and development, at the state level. Red states, led by Florida, refined and enlarged the Trumpist agenda by applying it to their own circumstances. With the assistance of solid Republican majorities in the state legislatures, Republican governors pushed to keep taxes low; to resist excessive COVID-19 lockdowns of schools and businesses; to counter higher education’s and Big Business’s woke devotion to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and to implement the Dobbs decision, which restored state governments’ right to deliberate on their own abortion laws.

Some red states went further than others, but the result was a wave of moral arguments and political experiments that will demand attention on all these questions. Even on abortion: Florida made most abortions illegal, for example, after the unborn child is six weeks old; North Carolina (its GOP legislators overriding a Democratic governor’s veto) after twelve weeks. The debate will continue about the moral implications of overturning Roe v. Wade and what the political implications ought to be.

Despite some differences within the red states, however, the overall effect was to widen disagreements between the red and blue states. Governor Ron DeSantis became the standard-bearer for this contrast. He hailed Florida’s low taxes, light COVID-19 mandates, and other policies as reasons propelling its strong population growth, both in absolute and relative terms, among the states. Americans are voting with their feet as well as with their ballots, he argued. Florida is “where woke goes to die,” he likes to say; but it’s also where normal folks increasingly go to live.

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Though it may sound like the 1850s, the result of this process need not be secession. But it will almost certainly be further political discord. Storms have a way of clearing the air, however, and perhaps these clashes between states will clarify our choices in 2024 and for many elections to come.

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