If you're wondering why Rep. Xavier Becerra—a member of the House Democratic leadership—chose to leave his post for a new seat as Attorney General of California, here's why:
“We have policies in place that probably won’t pass at the federal level for another five, 10, 15 years,” Becerra said [of California]. “If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us.”
Becerra will be doing exactly what Greg Abbott of Texas started as attorney general and his indicted successor Ken Paxton perfected—blocking federal policy from his perch as chief legal officer of one of the most ideologically aligned states in the nation. That's how Paxton used federal judges to repeatedly stymie President Obama's policies on a nationwide scale.
But Becerra's new post is part of a bigger picture of Democratic resistance that's starting to be fleshed out at both the state and federal levels.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday demonstrated the hurdles to confirming former Marine General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense: Unlike other cabinet nominees, his appointment could be subject to a 60-vote threshold if Democrats filibuster the waiver he'll need as former military to fill a civilian post.
A filibuster of Mattis would represent the kind of tactical, point-by-point resistance that Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego broadly outlined in his call to arms last month: "Anything that makes Trump more powerful, makes him more dangerous,” he said. “We must not lift a finger to help him scam our country. We must instead put every effort into stopping him."
Earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren supplied the reasoning underlying Gallego's fervent call to defy Trump at every turn. "Republicans do not have majority support in this country," she said from the Senate floor. "The majority of voters supported Democratic Senate candidates over Republicans ones, and the majority supported a Democratic presidential candidate over a Republican one."
In short, the resistance is taking shape: a broad strategy of obstruct in every way informed by the rationale that Trump lacks majority support is now finding tactical outlets with both state-level and congressional leaders.
The pundits will be telling Democrats this is a recipe for failure. "How can you obstruct everything and then turn around and ask Americans to put you in charge of government?" they will say. That's exactly what Republicans did from the moment Barack Obama was elected—and he actually had a mandate that included both an electoral landslide and a triumph of the popular vote. Trump has nothing of the sort, and now the obstructionists are running the whole show.