Federal or Local? It's About Power - a podcast by Laura Flanders

Hi I’m Laura Flanders of GRITtv.

Conservatives need to figure out where they stand on local power. Their views present a paradox, suggested The New York Times recently.

Causing the confusion are so-called pre-emption laws passed by states to stop local governments from enacting their own policies. Eight states have passed laws scuttling local sick days rules. More have sought to pre-empt local regulations on things like local contracting, big box retailing and non-violent drugs. Most doggedly, the well-endowed National Restaurant Association has worked to block cities from raising restaurant workers' wages.

The business lobby’s cabal, the American Legislative Exchange Council has made passing pre-emption laws a priority, and Republican dominated state legislators have gone all out even as they jaw on about conservative values of individual liberty, don't tread on me and the evils of big government.

Hence the quandary. Curious: are conservatives for local control or against it?

The answer’s a lot more simple. Big business sees the writing on the wall. Even citizens in red states like Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota voted overwhelmingly for raising minimum wages last time around. Philadelphia recently became the 20th place in the states to enact a law guaranteeing workers paid sick days. In the same month, after rallies and protests and thousands of emails from state residents, New York’s Governor Cuomo announced a raise for his states 400,000 tipped workers. Cuomo knows a popular move when he sees one.

Especially given the deadlock in DC, voters want local government to take power back from far-off legislators and corporations. So it's no wonder that groups like the NRA and ALEC have turned cold on local power and big on big govt preemption.

Paradoxical? Not really. When it comes to government, we've bought a myth that there are high moral principles at stake: big or small, federal or local?

As the unseemly hypocrisy over pre-emption laws reveals, the fight’s really over power. And politicians, especially conservative ones, will squirm through no end of contradictions to keep their hands on it.


You can watch my interview with Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream, The first and Last days of the War on Drugs this week on The Laura Flanders Show on KCET/LINKtv and TeleSUR and find all my interviews and reports at GRITtv.org. To tell me what you think, write to: Laura@GRITtv.org.

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