The GOP Congress is going to be bad, very bad. But GOP legislatures around the nation are going to be nightmares, particularly considering the dire financial condition so many states face. State legislators around the country are going to be doing their damnedest to send us rocketing back a century.
Consider Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R).
Franklin may have outdone himself with his “Constitutional Tender Act,” which would require all transactions with the state of Georgia — including the payment of taxes — to be paid with U.S. minted gold or silver coins unless the state agrees to grant a special waiver for each transaction....
Were Franklin’s bill ever to become law it would have immediate and catastrophic consequences for Georgia’s economy. Among other things, the U.S. Mint simply does not make very many gold and silver coins — the Mint has even suspended sales of precious medal coins when demand rises above very low levels — so it is unlikely that enough coins even exist to allow Georgia taxpayers to pay more than a fraction of their tax obligations if they are required to do so in U.S. minted gold or silver.
Chances are the legislature in Georgia as a whole lives in both this century and this universe and his bill will go nowhere. What, unfortunately, is likely to succeed in a number of state is the cloning of Arizona's anti-immigrant racial profiling law, SB 1070.
State legislators in 25 states (see list below) planned to introduce SB 1070 clones in upcoming legislative sessions, according to Immigration Impact. Of course, not all — or even most — of these laws will pass. However, Republicans picked upthe most seats in the modern era of state legislatures in 2010 — more than Republicans did in 1994 or Democrats in the post-Watergate wave of 1974. Republicans hold both houses and the governorship in fifteen states (sixteen including Nebraska’s unicameral legislature)....
If states don’t take up SB 1070-like bills, in-state tuition — or even admission to public universities — for illegal immigrants is likely to be a big issue, especially after the failure of the DREAM Act during the recent lame-duck session of the U.S. Congress....
States with SB 1070-like legislation in the works: (PDF)
Most likely to pass: Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Maybe: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia
Less Likely: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island
In plenty of states, it looks like Republican legislators are going to take on another regular victim again, women of childbearing age. Despite having failed as an initiative twice in Colorado, "personhood" will be back. This is the movement to declare human zygotes--nothing more than fertilized eggs--persons, with all the rights conferred on clumps of cells that have become sentient human beings. Unless the sentient being is a female of child-bearing age--their rights have to be severely curtailed, apparently.
However, the overwhelming defeat of the personhood amendment in Colorado has not deterred proponents from pursuing similar strategies in other states. According to Personhood USA, action on personhood legislation is occurring in 30 states.
Florida may be the prime location for upcoming battles over personhood. Republicans made major gains during the 2010 midterms, sweeping many elections across the state. Personhood Florida is currently beginning efforts to get a measure similar to the Colorado amendment on the ballot in 2012....
Of course, not all debates in the states over choice will revolve around measures as extreme as personhood. With a wide swath of state legislatures in the GOP’s control beginning in January, Republicans across the country will have a new opportunity to subtly create laws restricting access to abortion.
If they manage to get personhood initiatives as broad as Colorado's passed, access to abortion will become even more critical. The Colorado amendment was so restrictive that it would have outlawed some of the most effective means of birth control.
If you thought the first decade of the 21st century was difficult to live through politically, I'm afraid you haven't seen anything yet.