How to Use Your Power

[Passages]

Blue states have many options for progress, if they commit to actually governing.

by David Dayen
March 24, 2025

On March 5, four state attorneys general visited a high school auditorium in Phoenix, to take testimony from people affected, directly or indirectly, by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency’s rampage through the federal government. At this “community impact hearing,” AGs from Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Minnesota, all Democrats, heard from fired VA and Department of Agriculture employees; school superintendents; abortion care and HIV providers who are struggling with funding freezes; navigators who help people connect with federal benefits that may not be there for long; nonprofit leaders in energy efficiency and food security who are seeing the people they serve suffer; and many more. All the speakers articulated the damage to Arizona’s economy and its people.

The AGs framed the event as the bare minimum of small-d democratic responsiveness. “When the federal government and Congress abandon their responsibilities, it falls to us to step up and defend the people that we serve,” said Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona, who hosted the hearing. Added Dan Rayfield, Oregon’s AG: “If the president is unwilling to listen to you … we will do it for him.”

The 23 Democrats occupying state Departments of Justice have assembled on daily teleconferences, strategizing counterattacks against what they consider MAGA and DOGE’s shredding of the Constitution and the separation of powers. The day after this hearing, Democratic AGs filed their eighth federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, this one over federal agencies’ intention to institute mass reductions in force without following prescribed statutes. “We have filed the lawsuits and we haven’t lost yet, folks,” Minnesota AG Keith Ellison told the crowd in Phoenix. “We can all get courage from each other.”

At a time when Americans opposed to the Trump-Musk agenda are thirsting for leadership, the crowd’s gratitude toward public servants with a sympathetic ear was palpable. Said Sandy Bahr of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, who detailed the impact of funding cuts to public land management, “Thank you all for being here for Arizonans and people across the United States and pushing back on this harmful agenda.”

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-24-how-to-use-your-power/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Never give your power away.

[Passages]

4. Yep, never.

[Clouds Passing]

2. NM AG Raul Torrez

https://nmdoj.gov/about-the-office/meet-the-attorney-general/

[Passages]

3. A total badass

[Clouds Passing]

5. He is!