There’s an argument in debate known as the National Governors Association counterplan that goes something like this: instead of affirming the resolution, the National Governors Association should send the President a public message letting him know that until the federal government does the resolution, they will cease all cooperation with the federal government. This will somehow reinvent federalism in a way that lets states regulate climate change or do DIY bioterror response(?).
This is a bad argument, and the reasons why get funnier over time:
- It doesn’t disprove the resolution
- The NGA would never do that (and also lacks the authority to do that)
- Even if the NGA did that, the state legislatures would impeach their governors rather than allow any of that to happen
- Even if the state legislators didn’t impeach their governors, the current participation in the NGA is abysmal. Only three republicans showed up in 2023
- Even if everyone got on board, Congress is dumb and slow enough that the cessation of cooperation would last for days, and probably weeks or months which would be sufficient to cause some variety of disaster and turn every living human being against repeated use of the tactic (which wouldn’t happen anyway because you couldn’t coordinate all fifty governors and because governors lack the authority to do that in the first place, see impeachment)
- Ceasing cooperation with federal programs would not stop climate because all of the states with hydrocarbons would use the situation to deregulate, and ceasing law enforcement cooperation would create a golden opportunity for terrorists seeking to perform any kind of attack.
- Did I mention that the National Governor’s Association is a joke yet?
- In the beautiful days of Trump1, and given that the red states aren’t on board with the plan, what do you think happens here lol
People win rounds on that crap.
Footnotes
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Say what you will about the President, he’s really funny to see referenced in debates as people try to read their executive authority good arguments even as they watch executive authority run rampage over their favorite programs. ↩