Horowitz: 7 ways conservatives can fight back at the state and local levels

Everyone is hoping and assuming 2021 will be a better year than 2020. But it will not happen on its own. We must get on the playing field and make it happen.

Assuming Joe Biden is sitting in the White House on January 20, there is little we can do to influence the direction of federal policy in the coming years. And given that too few Republicans in the Senate plan to stand against Biden's fraudulent election victory this week, we are out of options at the federal level to fight back against voter fraud. Many parts of the country are irrevocably lost, and certain federal policies, particularly foreign policy, are headed down a dark path. But does that mean that in conservative parts of the country, we must submit to unconstitutional tyranny, especially from an illegitimately elected president? Only if we allow it. Now is both the time and the opportunity to fight back.

Republicans control state legislatures in 31 states. They control the trifecta in 24 states plus Kentucky, where there is a Democrat governor but veto-proof GOP majorities in the legislature. Additionally, Trump won the vote in 83% of the counties, and a large portion of them have GOP elected officials or officials who can certainly be influenced and pressured into going along with local popular sentiment. With legislative bodies going back into session this January, now is the time for us to make a stand for freedom throughout the country.

Did New York and California ever cooperate with Trump? Not a chance. They became even more liberal under his tenure and even resisted federal enforcement of the law against foreign criminals who violated federal sovereignty. Why can't we do the same in the states and counties we supposedly control to at least return to constitutional governance?

To that end, here is a list of seven immediate agenda items for conservatives to focus on at the local and state levels to ensure that at least pockets of this country remain a sanctuary for ordered liberty and constitutional governance.

1) Constitutional sanctuaries against COVID fascism: Conservatives must immediately organize and push for the adoption of a declaration of rights and principles in the county and state legislative bodies over which they wield the most influence to make those jurisdiction sanctuaries against mask mandates, forced business closures, and draconian treatment of children in school. These declarations will affirm our rights to life, liberty, and property, terminate all emergency delegated authority to governors, and use the doctrine of lesser magistrates to fight unconstitutional suspensions of liberties from higher-ups in government.

2)Focus on local offices: Groups of patriots in each county need to assess, communicate with, pressure, and, if need be, recruit against the existing school board members, sheriffs, county judges, county prosecutors, county executives and commissioners. This is where all the power lies. There is no reason why in the 2,000+ counties Trump carried by easy margins that all of the aforementioned officials should not be on the same page to resist state or federal enforcement of unconstitutional lockdowns, mask tyranny, and abuse of our children at school. If not, we should immediately be working on candidates for those offices who share the values that reflect the presidential voting patterns of the county.

3) Immediately primary every lockdown governor: How is someone like Mike DeWine even able to stand for re-election this cycle, given that he has instituted the same lockdown policies as Andrew Cuomo in conservative Ohio? The answer is because we are not doing our job. Governors like DeWine in Ohio, Bill Lee in Tennessee, Brian Kemp in Georgia, Kay Ivey in Alabama, Brad Little in Idaho, Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, Greg Abbott in Texas, and Mark Gordon in Wyoming should easily attract a primary challenge. Trump should be recruited to support and rally for challengers. Why should we only have two anti-lockdown governors (DeSantis and Noem) of the 27 alleged Republican state executives in the country?

4) Vote on anti-crime/anti-riot and pro-self-defense legislation: While our governments took away our liberty with coronafascism in 2020, they also took away our safety by publicly blessing, rather than deterring, BLM and Antifa rioting. Additionally, they have released thousands of criminals, which has, in part, led to the sharpest increase in crime in a generation. Every Republican-controlled state legislature should immediately push legislation toughening sentencing on repeat violent offenders, clamping down on mob violence, and expanding self-defense laws. Ron DeSantis' anti-rioting bill he plans to propose to the Florida legislature should be a model for two dozen other states.

5) Strengthen election integrity: The first order of business in states Republicans control should be to ban mail-in voting and ballot harvesting. They must make sure all elections are secure. I've detailed a list of nine ideas that should be pursued at a minimum. What about the federal courts inevitably inserting themselves into these laws? That leads me to #6.

6) Tell the federal courts to pound sand: If states had the "right" to thwart federal immigration law under Trump, according to these courts, and if they had the right to ignore their own election laws in a presidential election that affects the entire country, then it's time for states to control areas of law that legitimately fall under their jurisdiction without judicial intervention. After turning down Trump's lawsuits, the federal courts have forfeited any ability to get involved in election law. Red states need to stand up to them once and for all and teach them that federalism is a two-way street.

7) Block refugee resettlement: If Joe Biden becomes president, he will immediately increase the number of refugees we admit and force them upon the states. Additionally, he will try to resettle more Central American teens who crash our border as refugees. Although states don't control the visa admission process, refugee resettlement requires state cooperation to place large numbers of refugees in local communities. While Americans are locked down, it makes no sense to admit more people from around the world. If states can welcome illegal aliens, then states can close their doors to the antiquated institution of refugee resettlement.

Notice a pattern? Most of the power on the relevant issues resides in the states where Republicans control a significant amount of power. They make it seem as if the world hinges on a razor-thin RINO majority in the Senate in Washington, yet they refuse to use the power in meaningful ways even when they control all of state government with supermajorities. The same legislatures that declined to challenge the election results refuse to fight on any other issue as well. That can all change if conservatives train their fire on local officials and candidates and fight national issues at the local level.

So, the next time Republicans give the excuse of "but Biden" and "but Pelosi" to justify their inaction on an issue, remember there are two dozen states that should look like a conservative version of California. They have their sanctuary states for tyranny and criminals. We should have ours for ordered liberty and the Constitution.