Abstract
Civil, political, and economic rights need to be protected nationally. It is absurd to live in a nation where fundamental safeguards are contingent on state residency. When progressives hear federalism and “states' rights,” they cringe and rightfully so. Historically, arguments for states' rights were used to thwart civil rights and maintain racial oppression. Conversely, since the progressive era, through the New Deal and the Great Society, federal governmental power was used to expand these rights and broaden social opportunity. But today, American federalism has changed. Today conservatives use government power opportunistically. When it's convenient to invoke states rights, they do so. And when it's expedient to have the federal government preempt progressive legislation, that's fine, too. Republican-led states are also systematically narrowing the authority of cities led by Democrats on issues ranging from the minimum wage to LGBT rights.