Anti-Democratic GOP Authoritarian Tribalism Intensifies

The New York Times reports on a split within the GOP in congress over whether or how to provide financial aid to blue states. The pro-democracy side is not considering the politics of the states to be helped and the anti-democratic, authoritarian tribal side is criticizing blue states for irresponsibility behind their own poor financial condition in the face of Covid-19. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) argued at a GOP meeting for the pro-democracy side by asserting that “blue states aren’t the only ones who are screwed.”

The intra-GOP split was sharpened by a letter from Democratic governors of five states, California, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington State. The letter asserted that that all 50 states would need $1 trillion in “direct and flexible relief” to deal with the financial fallout of Covid-19.

The NYT writes:

“Two days later, Senator Rick Scott of Florida made the opposite point, arriving at another party gathering with his own placard that showed how rosy his state’s financial picture was compared with those of three Democratic states: New York, Illinois and California. Why should Congress help struggling states and cities, he argued, when the bulk of the aid would go to Democratic strongholds that he said had a history of fiscal mismanagement? 

President Trump has not ruled out sending additional money to states. But he has gone after Democratic governors, accusing them of mismanaging their finances, and charged that the party’s members in Congress ‘want help — bailouts — and, you know, bailouts are very tough. And they happen to be Democrat states.’ 

‘The Republican states are in strong shape,’ he said last month. ‘I don’t know — is that luck or is that talent?’ 

On Monday, Mr. Trump again accused Democratic states of dragging their feet on reopening their economies. ‘There just seems to be no effort on certain blue states to get back into gear,’ he said. 

Mr. Trump has said that ‘we’re in no rush’ to produce another round of federal pandemic relief, and branded Democrats ‘stone-cold crazy.’”

Is that luck or is that talent?

The president raises a good question about the alleged good shape that republican states are in compared to democratic states. Looking at the big picture helps put the situation in context.

First and foremost, because the president botched the federal Covid-19 response and continues to fail to this day, one can argue that most of the responsibility for the financial impacts of Covid-19 on all states belongs mostly to an incompetent president. He had a chance to stop Covid-19 and he failed.

That is a combination of very bad luck and lack of talent that hits all states. By framing the issue as blue state fiscal irresponsibility, the president and Trump Party senators deflect from their own responsibility for the federal failure that caused the financial damage in the first place. That is tribal partisan, anti-democratic authoritarian propaganda.

Second, blue states dominate states that pay more in federal taxes than they get get back in federal spending. In the past, the amount of the imbalance for some states such as California was enormous. At present these ten states are net supporters of all other states in order of which state pays the most per state citizen: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Illinois, New Hampshire, Washington state, Nebraska and Colorado. Some former donor states are now net recipients. For example, starting in 2019, became a net recipient. In 2018, California paid $13.7 billion more in taxes than it received. Now California receives $12 more per resident than is sent to the federal government, about $480 million for 2019.

2014 data

In view of what GOP authoritarians want to do, blue states have every right to demand all of their excess federal money back, and to demand 100% equal federal spending among all states going forward. That would probably alter the reality of just how fiscally talented many red states really are. They aren't talented at all. They are welfare queens lucky to be subsidized by so many blue states. The authoritarian allegation that blues states are irresponsible is contradicted by the fact that some blue states have been major donors to red states for many years.

Third, the 2017 tax cut law that the GOP passed with no democratic votes intentionally targeted blue state taxpayers: “‘The Republican tax increase bill disproportionately hurts California taxpayers by capping SALT (state and local taxes) deductions. Today, the average California taxpayer takes a $22,000 deduction,’ de León pointed out. The GOP measure he said, would ‘cap it at $10,000, meaning Californians will be double-taxed.’” That is another bit of bad luck for blue states that are adversely impacted by the 2017 tax cut law, which mostly benefited wealthy people and corporations, including golf course owners.


Blue states look to be at least as fiscally responsible as red states, if not more so. Blue states have suffered from the bad luck associated with the fallout of the 2016 election, including an incompetent president that allowed Covid-19 to run free and wild. And, since the pandemic has not run its course yet and red states are leading the charge to reopen, they could face even worse impacts than they have so far.

All in all, the authoritarian GOP attack on bue states is built mostly on lies, deflections and blind tribal partisanship.