JAMES P. PINKERTON: The Red-Blue Rumble Comes To Health

The Sept. 3 headline in The New York Times, the perfect place for Democrats to make an announcement: “Snubbing Kennedy, States Announce Plans to Coordinate on Vaccines: Governors in California, Oregon and Washington said their states would work together on vaccine guidance.”

The person being snubbed, of course, is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  In just a few years, he’s gone from being a legatee of the greatest Democratic dynasty in American history to a devil figure to top Democrats.  And the Times doesn’t like him much, either.

Yet on Wednesday, the three West Coast Democratic governors—Jay Ferguson, Tina Kotek, and Gavin Newsom—took aim, in their joint statement, at an even greater devil figure:

“President Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists—and his blatant politicization of the agency—is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people.  The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences.  California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.” (RELATED: ‘Deserves To Be Turned Inside Out’: Scott Jennings Torches ‘Public Health Regime’ On CNN)

So far, at least, the Democrats’ joint ire concerns only the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the head of which, Susan Monarez, was fired by RFK on Aug. 27 and then, after she didn’t acknowledge his authority, by the White House.

Yet we can all see the larger story here: The blue states are banding together, in opposition to you-know-who.  Indeed, it’s a safe bet that other blue states will join this west coast trio; we might keep in mind that the Harris-Walz ticket carried a total of 19 states last year.  And oh yes, too, the District of Columbia.  So that’s the upper limit of the blue-state alliance that could come together against the Trump administration on health—and on many other issues.

In fact, the polarization goes deep on both sides.  When Joe Biden and the Democrats held the White House, red states were coming together in opposition to progressive edicts.  For instance, in January 2024, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confronted the Biden Administration on immigration (others would call it invasion), rallying 24 fellow Republican governors to his side.  The Bidenites backed down.

This is the way we live now: The country is so polarized that the red zone of the country is going to oppose whatever the blue zone is doing.  And vice versa.

So the federal government is going to find itself opposed at every turn. Today, it’s Trump as the target of blue, one day, it will be a Democrat as the target of red.

To be sure, the Constitution allows the states to act exactly this way if they wish.  The 10th Amendment gives the states latitude to be laboratories of democracy. If the states can each make their own choices, there’s no need for them to fight. They can simply agree to disagree.

With that in mind, here at The Daily Caller, this author has argued that red states could and should demand permanent healthcare freedom.  Specifically, Red should emancipate itself from the dead hand of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  What’s vital, I wrote, is “the freedom of the individual to make his or her own health choices, even if the administrative state doesn’t like them.”

At the moment, the FDA is overseen by a Trump appointee, and yet nobody should think that the Deep State isn’t still running most things.  So while it’s fine to seek to reform the FDA, as a practical matter it’s more promising to establish new regulatory pathways out in the states—so that when the Democrats get back in charge in D.C., medical freedom is still assured.

Yet now we see: If red states can have their way on their turf, blue states will want, as well, to arrange their own affairs.  I’d say that’s a good deal, keeping the peace by giving people, on both sides of the divide, what they want.  That’s how we keep the peace and our liberty.

James P. Pinkerton served in the White House domestic policy offices of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  He is the author of The Secret of Directional Investing: Making Money Amidst the Red-Blue Rumble. 

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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