It turns out South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noam was right after all—a “coalition” of states is needed to face down today’s cancel culture.
Thankfully, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is currently holding the line on his state’s passage of common-sense election reforms, but for how long in a state already being threatened by calls for an MLB boycott? President Biden supports such a boycott. Even that state’s newly elected Senator Warnock coyly refuses to oppose it.
Noam buckled to economic threats from Amazon and the NCAA among others with her second pass at transgender sports legislation. North Carolina did much the same thing with its bathroom law a few years earlier.
The pressure to cave has to be immense, particularly for small states lacking a diversified economy. And for any governor really that takes their oath to that state’s citizens seriously.
Surely, like-minded states like Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina can come together to draft common-sense legislation. Republicans have majorities in both houses in 31 states. In 25 of them, they have both the governor’s mansion and both houses. Start acting like the big dog, because at the state level, you are!
It’ll, of course, require governors and state legislators to put aside their egos. And yes, it might even require some compromise. But in building a legislative firewall involving a compact of states, you will be better able to withstand the pressures that will inevitably be brought to bear, and in so doing, do your country a great service.
One last comment on election reform legislation: I used to tell my daughters when they were growing up that they were responsible for managing both the facts and the perception thereof. The election reforms that Georgia has passed into law manage the latter. You can technically have the best widget there is, but if the public doesn’t believe it to be true, well, you have a problem, don’t you?
Jim Eschrich
