Contrary to the conventional wisdom held by talking heads, there is no going back to the days of “decency” and “respectability” politics. The Tweedledee and Tweedledum of political parties discussing mundane issues is becoming an afterthought in the era of populism.
To be sure, we’re not going to witness a drastic rollback of government intrusions at the federal level, much less the abolition of the litany of unconstitutional laws and regulations emanating from DC any time soon. However, there is plenty of potential for states to poke Washington in the eye by nullifying its laws and pursuing their own policy agendas.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently got the decentralist memo when he announced on December 2, 2021, a new funding proposal for Florida’s National Guard and a plan that would resurrect the Florida State Guard, a state defense force that was disbanded in 1947.