State-level politics & the fight against fascism

State legislatures and attorney generals have a role to play in fighting tRumplethinskin and his Republican enablers.

Maryland lawmakers on Wednesday empowered the attorney general to bypass the governor and sue the federal government at his own discretion.

The Democrat-controlled General Assembly has moved swiftly to expand authority of the state’s lawyer for the first time in what lawmakers said was more than 150 years, spurred by what Democrats and Attorney General Brian E. Frosh say is a unique threat posed by Republican Donald J. Trump’s administration.

[…]

The House of Delegates passed the “Maryland Defense Act” on a strict party line vote Wednesday, 89-50. The Senate approved the same measure last week 29-17, with three Democrats voting with Republicans against it.

During the next election the assembly members who voted against this bill should be painted as protectors of the yammering yam, as should Gov. Hogan.

Frosh, a Democrat, said he sought Hogan’s authority to contest the constitutionality of Trump’s travel ban on Feb. 1, but the governor has not answered the request. The day before, lawmakers announced their plan to give Frosh permission to sidestep the governor.

Hopefully this will spread to other states, just as the push to require presidential candidates to release their tax returns is spreading. (I think that one started in New York, but Maryland lawmakers are considering a similar bill.) In addition to the importance of opposing fascism, it’s good for citizens to see leaders opposing fascism, even if it is in another state.

And of course there’s the can’t-be-overstated importance of irritating tRump as much as possible.