Left-wing bureaucracies are quietly undercutting the will of Republican voters in so-called “red states” across the country, according to a new report.
Published this week by the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), the group’s “Shadow Government” analysis reveals how “Republican voters elect Republican governors and legislatures — only to find their states governed by the same DEI mandates, ESG principles, and left-wing administrative orthodoxy that prevail in blue states.” The end result of this dynamic, the report notes, is “a subversion of self-government.”
“When unelected associations dictate how agencies operate — and do so in lockstep with federal bureaucracies and activist NGOs — the will of the people is rendered moot,” the report reads. “Republican officials are not merely thwarted; they are trapped in a system designed to resist course correction.”
According to SLI, left-wing actors are able to accomplish this feat through the use of “national associations of state officials,” which often masquerade themselves as “nonpartisan” while advancing “progressive governance.” In turn, these organizations “issue policy templates, draft regulations, broker federal grants, and shape the internal culture of government agencies” — all of which SLI notes are “rarely scrutinized by voters or elected officials, but … are treated as gospel by career bureaucrats.”
“Through this mechanism, leftist policy becomes the baseline for red state governance, without a single vote cast,” the report reads.
The analysis highlights several state-affiliated associations and how they have each sought to further left-wing orthodoxy in state governments across the nation.
This includes the infamous National School Boards Association (NSBA), which, as noted by SLI, gained widespread fame in fall 2021 after asking the Biden administration to use domestic terrorism laws to go after parents protesting unscientific Covid policies and racial indoctrination at school board meetings. The report also documents the NSBA’s past support for “racial sensitivity training and DEI-aligned curricula” and “expanded federal oversight of local education.”
Other organizations highlighted in the analysis are the Environmental Council of the States, National Association of Medicaid Directors, and more.
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SLI includes several recommendations for elected Republican state officials on how to “reclaim control over their bureaucracies.”
Among them are to conduct a full-scale audit of which national organizations their respective state is partnered with and issuing executive directives “instructing agencies not to adopt external model policies without in-state review and justification.” The group also advised GOP officials to go on offense by creating “alternative institutions committed to political neutrality — or better, to accountable governance.”
“The problem is structural, but the response need not be timid. States possess both the authority and the tools to reclaim control over their bureaucracies,” the report reads. “The only requirement is the will to act — and a refusal to accept ‘professional consensus’ as a substitute for constitutional government.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood