January 21, 2005
Taking It to the
States
By KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL
As Bush begins his second term today,
progressives must fight hard in DC against the dismantling and rollback of the twentieth century's hard-earned rights and
liberties. But with legislative--and this week, literal--gridlock in our capitol city, it's time to recognize that the road
to renewal may well run through the states.
As Justice Louis Brandeis argued in
the 1930s, "It is one of the happy accidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose,
serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economic experiments."
A savvy progressive state-based strategy
(and some of the smartest minds in politics today are at work crafting this ) would seize on this "happy accident," and turn
to the states to develop and promote the reforms and ideas that, eventually, will make their way onto the national agenda.
Here's a quick guide to ten initiatives (in both red and blue states) that are already winning beyond the Beltway.
1) Raising the Minimum Wage: George
W. won't even consider raising the federal minimum wage, but in November 2004, a whopping 71 percent of Florida's voters approved a referendum that raised the minimum wage above the miserly federal figure
of $5.15 an hour. Nevada voters did the same. In New York, Rhode Island, Illinois and Vermont, the state legislatures have followed suit; fourteen states now have
minimum wages that are higher than the federal government's.
2) Promoting Tax Fairness: In the November
election, California voters approved by a three to one margin tax increases
on those making more than $1 million a year--and earmarked the proceeds for mental health programs. In recent years, several
states "both red and blue"--Nebraska and North Carolina among them--have adopted legislation "decoupling" state law from Bush's
2001 revisions to the tax code which ultimately "would prevent the total elimination of estate taxes in 2010," says the Center
for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Thirty states have rejected a depreciation provision written into the tax code by Republicans
for their corporate allies in March 2002. Last year, the Virginia state legislature voted to raise taxes by $1.6 billion to provide more resources for education
and other state programs, and in November Maine
voters rejected a cap on property taxes.
3) Promoting Clean Elections: The Maine
state legislature approved the Clean Election Act, which provides public financing to those candidates who refuse to use private
donations or their own money to finance their campaigns. Well over 50 percent of Maine's legislators have run "clean money" campaigns. Voters in Arizona and Vermont have recently approved "clean money" ballot initiatives, and Arizona became the first state to elect a governor under the clean money
system.
4) Protecting the Environment: In 2002,
California enacted the nation's toughest law to limit car and
truck emissions--thus reducing greenhouse gases, antagonizing the automobile industry and dealing a blow to SUVs and other
gas-guzzling vehicles. In the past two years, six other states including Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey
have adopted California's tough new emissions standards--spearheading the
fight for clean air and reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Other victories: In this past election, Colorado voted to promote renewable energy, and Washington State voted to ban nuclear waste dumping.
5) Promoting Stem Cell Research: More
good news from the Golden State! In November, California voters rejected Bush's cynical policy on stem cell research when they
approved, 59 to 41, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. The law will raise $350 million to support stem
cell research in the hopes of ultimately finding cures for Alzheimer's and other diseases. One San Diego scientist predicted that the law would establish in California a "mini-NIH" that will give a much-needed shot in the arm to stem
cell research.
6) Reinstating Overtime Pay: In August,
the Bush Administration prevented millions of Americans from collecting overtime pay when it approved regulations narrowing
the list of those eligible. Illinois
rejected this anti-worker policy, however, passing a law reinstating overtime pay for workers in the state. Twenty states
have created overtime rules that are more expansive than the ones that the Bush Administration has adopted.
7) Providing Access to Emergency Contraception
Pills: In 2003, two FDA committees advised the FDA to make emergency contraception pills available to women over the counter.
The pills were declared safe and they were declared efficacious. But the FDA rejected its committees' recommendations, so
Maine, California and Hawaii, among others, have passed rules making this option available to women who go to their neighborhood
pharmacy. And New
York and New Mexico require that rape victims in emergency rooms must be offered emergency
contraception.
8) Outlawing Racial Profiling: Montana, New Jersey, Arkansas,
Illinois and other states have banned racial profiling, fighting
off John Ashcroft's efforts to target and detain Muslims simply, in many instances, because of who they are.
9) Financing Public Education:This past
election, Nevada voted to require its legislators to fund K-12 education
before anything else. Oklahoma
created a lottery system to raise money for public education, and North Carolina chose to put money collected from fines into its public school system,
as well as to require more equitable distribution of state money among the rich and poor school districts.
10) Protecting the Rights of Death Row
Inmates: Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and four other states have reformed their death penalty laws, giving those on death row the
right to DNA testing. Illinois
undertook a comprehensive re-examination of its death row system; after the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment
found widespread flaws and abuses, the Illinois
state legislature adopted many of the eighty-five reforms that the Commission had recommended. In Wyoming and South Dakota, juvenile executions have been banned.
So, let's not hang our heads this Black
Thursday but instead recognize that these are victories to build on in the next years. As Joel Rogers--director of The Center
on Wisconsin Strategy, one of the savviest and most effective state policy groups around--wrote last year in these pages,
progressives urgently need to develop and implement a more comprehensive and ambitious state strategy, building on the policy
victories and organizing already underway.
Faced with four more years of Bush and
DC gridlock,that's what I call a smart and winning agenda for a second term.
_____________________
Katrina vanden Heuvel is Editor of The Nation. She is a frequent commentator on American politics on CNBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Her weblog for the Nation is published
at the Editor's Cut.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
