Thread by @didikins4life

There are many of @HC_Richardson “Letters from An American” that should be highlighted. This one is of vital importance because it summarizes where we find ourselves today as we #resist those who mean to strip our rights, protections & freedom. open.substack.com/pub/heathercox…
1/23

According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, legislatures in at least ten states have set out to weaken federal child labor laws. 2/23
#PayAttentionAmerica #ChildLabor

In the first three months of 2023, legislators in IA,MN,MS,NE,OH & SD introduced bills to weaken the regulations that protect children in the workplace & in March, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law repealing restrictions for workers younger than 16. 3/23

Those in favor of the new policies argue that fewer restrictions on child labor will protect parents’ rights, but in fact the new labor measures have been written by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a Florida-based right-wing think tank. 4/23 #ChildLabor

FGA is working to dismantle the federal gov to get rid of business regulations. It has focused on advancing its ideology thru the states but the argument that its legislation protects parental rights has enabled them to wedge open a door to attack regulations more broadly. 5/23

#FGA is part of a larger story about Republicans’ attempt to undermine federal power in order to enact a radical agenda through their control of the states. 6/23 #PayAttentionAmerica

This has been part of the Republican agenda since the 1980s, as leaders who hated federal regulation of business,a social safety net & protection of civil rights recognized that a strong majority actually liked those things & getting them repealed would be a terribly hard sell. 7

Instead, Republicans used their control of federal courts to weaken the power of the federal government and send power back to the states. 8/23 #RepublicanPowerGrab #PayAttentionAmerica

Historically, states have been far easier than the federal gov for a few wealthy men to dominate.After 1986 Republicans began to restrict voting in the states they controlled, giving themselves an advantage;after 2010 they focused on taking over the states thru # gerrymandering.

This has enabled them to stop Congress from enacting popular legislation and has created quite radical state legislatures. Currently, in 29 of them, Republicans have supermajorities, permitting them to legislate however they wish. 10/23 #RepublicanPowerGrab

The process of taking control of the states by choosing who can vote got stronger today when the North Carolina Supreme Court, now controlled by Republicans, revisited an earlier ruling concerning partisan #gerrymandering. 11/23

Overruling the previous decision, the court green-lighted partisan gerrymandering, opening the door for even more extreme gerrymanders in the future. The court also okayed voter restrictions that primarily affect Black people.12/23 #VotingRights

Gutting the federal government and throwing power to the states makes it easier for business leaders to cozy up to legislators & slash business regulations. It also enables a radical minority to enact its own worldview despite the wishes of the state. 13/23 #RepublicanPowerGrab

This dynamic is very clear over abortion rights and gun safety. 
Last June, quite dramatically, the Supreme Court overturned federal protection of the right to an abortion guaranteed in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. 14/23
#RoeVsWade #GunReform

In Dobbs v. Jackson decision the right-wing court said decisions about abortion rights belonged to voters at the state level. But as the last ten months have made clear,the RW doesn’t really intend to let voters of the states make decisions that contradict right-wing ideology.

After the Dobbs decision, Republican-dominated legislatures immediately began to restrict the right to abortion, although it remains popular in the country and voters have rejected extreme abortion restrictions in every special election held since the decision. 16/23 #choice

Now Republican legislators in #Ohio are trying to head off an abortion rights amendment scheduled for a popular vote in November by requiring 60% of voters, rather than 50%, to amend the state constitution. 17/23 #RepublicanPowerGrab

Gun safety shows the same pattern. A new Fox News poll shows that 87% of voters favor background checks for gun purchases, 81% favor making 21 the minimum age to buy a gun, 80% want mental health care checks on all gun buyers, 80% want flags for people who are dangerous… 18/23

And yet, Republican majorities in state legislatures are rapidly rolling back gun laws. The #TN legislature expelled two young Black reps when they encouraged protesters after the majority quashed attempts to introduce gun safety measures after a mass shooting in Nashville. 19/23

But they were not alone. Last week, when the Nebraska senate passed a  permitless concealed carry law, Melody Vaccaro, executive director of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, shouted “Shame!” multiple times.She has since been “barred and banned” from the Nebraska statehouse. 20/23

The attempt of a radical minority to enforce their will on the rest of us by stealing control of the states is precisely what Confederates tried to do before the Civil War: it is no accident that one of the Jan 6 insurrectionists carried a replica of a Confederate battle flag.

And yet, in the wake of the Civil War, when former Confederates tried to dominate their Black neighbors despite the defeat of their ideology on the battlefields, Congress tried to make it impossible to pervert our democracy by capturing the states. 22/23 #14thAmendment

In 1868 the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, putting into our fundamental laws the principle that the federal government trumps state power. 
“The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”