States Fight Back Against Biden War on the West

President Ronald Reagan used to refer to our country as "these United States," not "the United States."

That may seem to be an inconsequential grammatical difference, but a whole different philosophy of our system of government is embedded in that phraseology. Reagan reinforced the traditional notion of American federalism: that the states created the federal government, not the other way around.

The states are to serve as "laboratories of democracy." Our Founding Fathers' ingeniousness was recognizing that healthy competition among the states was the best way to devise policy solutions.

This brings us to President Joe Biden. No president in modern times, perhaps ever, has shown such contempt for our system of federalism.
So I was thrilled to see this headline from, of all places, Alaska: "Dunleavy Tells Feds Alaska Is Taking Over Management of 800,000 Miles of River."

Alaska is asserting its right as a state to control its lakes and rivers. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is so fed up, and he has asked the Biden administration to "stop bothering Alaskans."

Bravo.

We need governors and state lawmakers to show much more of this peaceful defiance when Washington oversteps. That's happening a lot lately. Biden has declared no more drilling on federal lands in the West, and this federal directive will cost these states potentially trillions of dollars. The authorities are also planning to take millions of acres of land in the West out of development.


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