Blue States Gearing Up To Resist Trump With All The HELL NOs They Have

And Marjorie Taylor-Greene said a dumb thing about it, too.

Still better writing than Project 2025.

As Donald Trump works his way through all the people he knows from Fox News to staff up his Cabinet, governors of blue states are also preparing for the second Trump term, mostly by planning out how they’ll protect their states’ residents from the tender Culture War mercies of the Trump crowd. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado’s Jared Polis have formed a nonprofit organization, Governors Safeguarding Democracy, to encourage collaboration and information sharing among Democratic governors and to “craft laws and policies that protect the rule of law and serve the people of our great states.” It’s kind of a Democracy-focused Nextdoor, only with tips on pooling legal resources and model legislation, not complaining that someone saw a teenager walking on a sidewalk in a very suspicious manner.

The new group hasn’t actually named any particular presidents-elect as the source of threats to democratic governance. Officially, it’s nonpartisan, although when asked on a press call about the potential involvement of any Republican governors, Pritzker said the group has had “good conversations” with some Republicans he declined to name, possibly to protect them from their own voters.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t formally joined Governors Safeguarding Democracy, but he did call a special session of the state Legislature, to begin December 2, for the purpose of shoring up California laws and policies that may be threatened by Trump and the Republican trifecta. Among other things, Newsom is calling for additional funding for the California Department of Justice so it can do all the litigating needed to protect against “any unlawful actions by the incoming Trump Administration, as well as defend against federal lawsuits aimed at undermining California’s laws and policies.”

Among the focuses will be the state’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, particularly its goals of ramping up renewable energy, backed by battery storage, as well as its target of requiring all new vehicles sold in the state to have zero emissions by 2035. Newsom also wants the Lege to prepare to protect immigrant families, LGBTQ+ folks, and reproductive rights from potential GOP meddling. And of course disaster preparedness, because Trump is once more threatening to withhold emergency wildfire help from California unless it lets endangered species die. But if California behaves, Trump will reward California with water from Canada’s Giant Faucet, just as long as none of it reaches the Pacific Ocean, which has enough water, OK? Stupid California!

Other states are preparing their own strategies to protect against Republicans’ plans to impose GOP-style shittiness nationwide. Washington’s new Democratic Governor-elect Bob Ferguson, currently the AG so he knows from law stuff, says his staff has spent months getting ready for a possible Trump presidential win, just in case. Similarly, Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell said that she and other Democratic AGs are “on the front lines to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms” from whatever Trump and company might throw at blue states.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul says she and AG Letitia James are working to “protect the fundamental freedoms of New Yorkers” like the state’s protections for reproductive freedom and its gun safety laws. (She also, sigh, told Trump in a phone call that “there are areas where we can work together,” a talking point some other Democratic governors have gestured toward even as they pledge not to let Trump run wild over the states.)

Also significant on climate: Following the election, Hochul reversed a decision that had mightily pissed off mass transit and climate activists back in June. As you may recall, just two weeks before New York City was to begin “congestion pricing” — higher tolls on drivers entering lower Manhattan, which would cut carbon emissions and reduce traffic — Hochul suddenly placed the program on indefinite hold. Last week, Hochul announced that the hold was over, and on Monday, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) board voted to fast-track the plan, with a new EZ-Pass fee for cars of $9 instead of the original plan’s $15. (The fee will now increase twice over the next six years, to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031). The new revenue will help pay for improved mass transit citywide, including desperately needed upgrades to make subway stations accessible to riders with disabilities.

As we noted when Hochul temporarily shelved the plan, congestion pricing to reduce city traffic has resulted in significant reductions in carbon emissions and other air pollution in European cities, accompanied by considerably improved public health. In Stockholm, a five to ten-percent reduction in pollution led to a dramatic 50 percent drop in asthma attacks.

So hooray, Kathy Hochul is off the climate shit list, and it’s just possible that New York’s example will prompt other big American cities to follow suit.

Oh yeah, we almost forgot: Stupid Stupidhead Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Elon’s Sewer Monday that Democratic governors’ plans to resist Trump’s wise plans to make America Florida amounted to an attempt to “commit treason against our President and the majority of Americans,” and said again that we should have a “national divorce.” Then everyone pointed out that treason is not disagreement with a president, Trump didn’t get a fucking majority either, and he has no fucking mandate to impose Christian nationalism on the US, the end.

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[Politico / Reuters / CBS News / Daily Beast]

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