Michael Laskaway

AI Summary

→ WHAT IT COVERS Marshall Koslowski and States Forum Journal editor-in-chief Michael Laskaway argue that American states — not Washington — are the functional center of political change, and that the center-left lacks a coherent narrative framework to capitalize on that power amid federal dysfunction. → KEY INSIGHTS - **State-centered governance:** The right has spent decades building infrastructure around state-level power while the left defaulted to federal solutions. States control utilities, election systems, degree requirements, and right-to-repair legislation — policy levers with direct, immediate impact on daily costs and quality of life that federal gridlock cannot touch. - **The American Promise framework:** States Forum uses four principles — representative democracy, effective government, fair markets, and personal freedom — drawn from the Declaration of Independence as an editorial and ideological test. This worldview functions as a fusionist filter, allowing thinkers across factional lines to collaborate without requiring agreement on every policy dispute. - **AI regulation as a state-level flashback:** When federal legislators proposed banning state-level AI regulation, both left and right state legislators pushed back — primarily because data centers are driving up local utility bills. Framing AI policy through constituent electricity costs, not abstract human flourishing, is what actually moves state-level coalitions. - **Ballot-counting speed as a trust-building tool:** Secretaries of state could spend the two years before 2028 publicly and aggressively reducing ballot-counting times. This technocratic fix carries rare narrative weight — it directly addresses a widespread, concrete source of institutional distrust without requiring any partisan concession on election integrity principles. - **Narrative before policy:** The center-left's struggle in long-form formats like three-hour podcasts stems from leading with policy plans rather than personal story arcs. A more effective approach connects policy positions to an evolving personal or historical narrative first, then derives the policy — the model the populist right has used consistently since the mid-2010s. → NOTABLE MOMENT Laskaway references historian Alan Brinkley's argument that New Deal economic conflicts were ultimately resolved not by intellectual debate but by historical circumstance — suggesting today's abundance-versus-anti-monopoly tensions may similarly require time and external events, not just better conference norms, to resolve. 💼 SPONSORS None detected 🏷️ State Politics, Liberalism Realignment, Federalism, AI Regulation, Political Narrative