I just watched some of today’s rally for #Harris featuring #JoshShapiro, governor of #Pennsylvania, and #GretchenWhitmer, governor of #Michigan. It was one of the more unusual and promising political events of my lifetime. 1/
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I have spent my career as a political philosopher and legal theorist arguing that progressives, Democrats, people on the left in the U.S. must focus on state and local government. In the U.S. federalist system, the states have real political and legal force, not just on paper. Even movements like the New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society are operationalized in and by the states. 2/
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To see two Democratic governors sharing the stage in #Pennsylvania, highlighting what their states have in common and why residents in #Michigan and #Pennsylvania specifically have reason to turn to elect #KamalaHarris was energizing - and not just for me, but clearly also for the folks at the rally. 3/
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The two governors presented as equals, each amplifying the other. #JoshShapiro and #GretchenWhitmer were building, in real time, a *regional* progressive case for #KamalaHarris. That regionalism can be a powerful force for good. It isn’t just that #Michigan and #Pennsylvania have similarities. Many people in each state have friends and family in the other. And in #Kentucky and upstate #NewYork. 4/
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Getting people to think regionally gets them to reach out to friends and family who have moved to nearby states, states and areas we don’t think of as “blue” but which face circumstances like the ones faced by bluer states. This is how you build a decentralized powerful progressive movement in the United States. 5/
Such a movement can be harnessed for progressivism at the federal level but since it isn’t concentrated there it is harder to defeat in single swoops. (I know people here on Mastodon totally get this dynamic.) Yes, certain rights and freedoms should not depend on which state you live in. But the way to make sure they are available to all Americans is to forge progressivism in the states. 6/6
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