Power Grab

by Jason Chaffetz

  I was maybe ten years old. My dad was out of town. I was home alone with my mom and brother. The weather was dark and rainy outside; flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder filled the night. It was past my bedtime but I had not yet fallen asleep when I heard the doorbell ring. All the lights in the house were off. I got up to tell my mom someone was at the door. When she saw me, she quickly grabbed me and pulled me into the closet, where we dialed the police. I remember being so scared.

  She had gone to the door and had seen a suspicious stranger standing outside the window. She realized we were in a vulnerable situation. We stayed on the phone as police arrived to search our yard and the adjoining open field that dropped down into a steep canyon. The operator was telling my mom that the police were there and not to worry, but I did worry. When they told us it was safe to come out, we went to the front door where a sopping-wet policeman stood. You could see the muddy bootprints of the man prowling around our home. I remember that police officer as clear as day, just leaning down and telling me, “You know what? I’m not going anywhere tonight. I will look after you.” He promised me that he would stay on our street all night.

  Later in life, when I became more responsible as an adult, I got my own sidearm. I really enjoy shooting for recreation. But given some of the threats directed at my family during my time in office, I felt better knowing we could defend ourselves against an intruder. I feel safer. I sleep better. My wife and I are both concealed-carry permit holders. I know that if, heaven forbid, something like that happened to me now, I could protect myself and my family. So when I see these people up talking about how they want to take away my constitutional right to bear arms, I’m highly offended. Guns aren’t for everybody. If someone doesn’t want one, they shouldn’t get one. But our response to criminal use of guns should not be to restrict them from law-abiding people who just want to protect themselves. I think about these young people—women and men—who want to protect themselves, too.

  I also see threats to the Fourth Amendment from unreasonable searches and seizures, particularly in light of the FISA surveillance abuses, but also from standard tools like GPS surveillance. I believe people have a fundamental right to privacy. In today’s electronic age, the story of our generation more and more will be about the balance and tug-of-war between security and liberty. I don’t trust the federal government. If I’m a law-abiding citizen above suspicion, I have a right to privacy. I also worry about the ways in which our information can be exposed for political purposes. Such concerns were long considered fringe conspiracy theories, but we watched the Obama IRS target conservative groups, asking invasive questions, exposing their donors, singling them out for audits, and in other cases, releasing confidential tax information. These are threats we cannot afford to ignore.

  Finally, we need to recognize the value of the Tenth Amendment, which delegates broad powers to states and limits the powers of the federal government. For too long, we’ve allowed ourselves to lose sight of this important innovation.

  Never has there been a better opportunity to restore a more federalist approach to governing than right now. I was hopeful when President Trump was elected that we might see Democrats embrace one of our founders’ best ideas. But after eight years of focusing on top-down solutions with President Obama, Democrats had lost a great deal of power in state legislatures. During the Obama presidency, they lost close to one thousand state legislative seats.

  But today, after modest gains in statehouses during the midterms, Democrats may be ready to join with Republicans in more measures to empower states. They picked up 323 state legislative seats previously held by Republicans, losing only 100 to Republicans. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Democrats picked up state control (control of the governorship plus majorities in the House and Senate) in 7 additional states, for a total of 14. In 2018 Democrats also won control of both houses of the state legislature in four additional states and picked up four attorney general seats. Republicans still have the edge, maintaining state control in 22 states and holding majorities in both bodies of eight more. These gains may not make Republicans happy, but they do increase the probability that we can get Democrats on board for greater autonomy, flexibility, and empowerment of states.

  The concept of federalism was transformative when the revolutionary idea was put into practice in the earliest days of our republic. The idea that power should be divided and shared, not just horizontally across different branches of the federal government, but vertically from federal to state to local levels, is the component that sets this nation apart from every form of government that came before. It allows a liberal state like Massachusetts to pursue policies right for New England without forcing those policies on rural voters in Oklahoma, enabling each to forge an identity that is unique to the people who live there.

  The one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to federal policy has created a long list of failures. From President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the inflexibility of federal programs has created headaches for local communities. Furthermore, duplicative programs at each level create conflict and waste taxpayer dollars. Why should the EPA and the state environmental agency employ the same expertise and work on the same problems? So much of what is coming down from the federal level could easily be managed at the state level.

  Following the 2016 election, we did see some small movement by Democrats at the state level. They seemed mostly focused on pushing back against immigration policies, climate policies, and challenges to the president’s travel ban. Some states began pushing marijuana legalization initiatives despite federal law prohibiting the drug. Others, seeing the rightward shift of the Supreme Court, have pushed for extreme abortion policies at the state level, permitting the practice all the way up to the due date.

  Notwithstanding these small moves toward federalism, the party’s base has increasingly doubled down on the push toward federalism’s antithesis. Socialism depends on a strong central government to force people to comply with its high taxes and restrictive mandates. It leaves little room for state-level innovation and customization as socialism’s expensive cradle-to-grave social programs gobble up every available dollar. As the Democratic base and its well-funded collection of advocacy nonprofits move further and further to the left, the danger of losing one of our most revolutionary innovations grows.

  Fortunately, the threat of a second term for Donald Trump, a conservative Supreme Court, and a U.S. Senate majority that is virtually out of reach for Democrats in 2020 may be enough to nudge members of Congress to try their socialist experiments at the state level. Meanwhile, giving states greater authority to experiment with reducing the costs of delivering Medicaid, embracing health-care innovations, or customizing their own environment regulations could pay huge dividends.

  Can there be any question that the United States, functioning under this Constitution, has been the most successful government in recorded history? We already have the solutions. Our fathers paid a heavy price in blood and treasure to leave them for us. We need to build faith in those institutions, not invalidate them.

  Our country faces problems and challenges that sometimes seem insurmountable. Sometimes what we see on television or read online makes us lose hope. But we must never forget that the United States is still the greatest country on the face of the planet. We have the right to engage in debate, to practice our faith, to assemble, and to petition our government. We still value and protect minority voices. We have the ability to use states as a laboratory of ideas that tests different approaches to problem solving. All of these innovations came to us through that miraculous document that still governs this nation—the Constitution.

  When I was in Congress I had the honor of traveling around the world. No matter where I went, whether in Libya, Pakistan, Vietnam, China, even Papua New Guinea, I encountered men and women who were willing to wear the Stars and Stripes and serve our nation. In the fore
ign service, the National Guard, the active-duty military, or perhaps one of our intelligence agencies, people were proud to serve. I’ve always gotten the most hope and promise from ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things. You don’t always know when your number will be called or something dramatic will happen, but collectively when those men and women serve around the world representing us, I take a deep breath and I realize that somehow, some way, things will be all right.

  You look into the eyes of our kids, and for me into the eyes of my granddaughter, and I really truly am optimistic for the future. Preserving what we have been given will continue to require vigilance. It will require participation. It will require standing up for what we believe in against those who would take away our freedoms and our liberties. We can’t let that happen. Politics can be a corrosive business. You can never truly separate corruption from power, but we have a system that helps minimize its impact. There will always be those willing to trade away our long-term foundational institutions in exchange for a short-term power grab. But the answers to our problems today are the same innovations that have kept us prosperous and stable for more than two hundred years.

  Acknowledgments

  Do you ever wonder, “How did I get here?” Not the birds-and-the-bees kind of getting here, but where you are right now in life as you read this book.

  It strikes me you are peculiar and different from most. You made a purchase to read or listen to a book about the problems and challenges in Washington, D.C. You are among the minority who will invest time, effort, and resources to understand the challenges we face and help to solve them. For that, we should all be thankful. I hope this book has been of value to you.

  Life has a funny way of putting us in places we didn’t necessarily foresee. Through its unforeseen twists, turns, and choices, life happens to us. Sometimes those twists and turns are for the best. Other times we wonder what possible purpose they could serve. In fact, the problems we face are often painful and distressing.

  During the times I endured the hardest of hard, I have come to appreciate how those difficult times mold us, make us stronger, give us character, and hopefully make us more loving and caring. It is those difficult times that can knock us down and beat us up, but it is also during those times we have a choice that can lead us to being better people. Hopefully that is the case.

  In my case, the toughest of personal, family, and professional times have shaped my character, perspective, and approach—generally for the better.

  I was very blessed to grow up in a loving household with parents whom I adored and who doted on me. They cared for me, nurtured me, let me struggle, and let me have it when I egregiously stepped over the line. Their love for me was unconditional. The opportunities for success and failure were numerous. I am grateful for the life they gave me.

  Through my travels and experiences I have increasingly come to realize how good I had it growing up in California, Arizona, and Colorado. I’m grateful for my experiences moving on to college at Brigham Young University in Utah. My dad was able to help me secure an athletic grant-in-aid, which led to a role as the starting placekicker on BYU’s nationally ranked football team for two seasons.

  From afar it probably appears I had it even easier than I did as a young boy awkwardly transitioning to a geeky teenager and then taking on the responsibilities of a man, a husband, and a father. Yet, no matter how affluent the zip code, divorce and cancer have a way of forcing reality into life typically unimaginable to someone who has not yet come of age.

  Perhaps someday I will write a book about those hard, dark, difficult experiences. For now, suffice it to say that I, with the help of a key few and relying upon the very real power of prayer, not only survived some horrific life choices but used them to gain strength. Miraculously those tough, strenuous situations had the power to make me stronger, smarter, more compassionate, and loving. I also came to realize I couldn’t do it alone—and I didn’t need to.

  My life has been shaped for the better by my family. My dad was tough but fair. He was competitive and helped instill that in my core. He opened doors and helped create possibilities. My mom was omnipresent, loving, and caring. Through her early and long battle with breast cancer we experienced the ultimate highs and lows of that battle. But our family grew closer together through the experience. My mom gave me confidence when I was awkward and unsure. She was a mother who loved her son and I knew it. Nothing else mattered.

  Both of my parents have passed, but with any success I have, I must acknowledge their positive influence and early formation of principles in my life.

  In my youngest years it was my younger brother, Alex, whom I shared life with day to day. We experienced the good and the bad together, and I count on him still today for guidance, love, and perspective. Thank you.

  In my twenties Julie came into my life. She doesn’t recall the first few times we met, but from day one I was mesmerized and in awe of this angelic person. She is truly the nicest, sweetest, most caring person I have ever met. She made me better in every way. I never could have been able to lead the life I have led without her as my wife, partner, and mother to our kids. As I write this book, we have been married for more than twenty-eight years. I cannot imagine life without her. She is everything to me. Thank you.

  Together, Julie and I were blessed with three wonderful children. I was away from home a lot during my time in Congress, but Julie was able to always be the foundation of our home. I am thankful for my family’s unwavering support of my political ventures. There is a very real cost to being in the public eye, and yet they have always taken it in stride. Thank you.

  Our now adult children are thriving and successfully launching into life in their own directions full of hope and excitement for the future. It is hard to ask for more than that as parents.

  Yet, candidly, it is a difficult transition for Julie and me. The reality of an empty nest is more challenging emotionally than I had anticipated. I don’t like it, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  We are also blessed to be grandparents. We have one granddaughter and we eagerly await the day we have a few more. We started our family at a young age, so we have been blessed to enjoy playing the role of grandparents at a relatively young age. No way anyone seeing Julie will think she is a grandma.

  As I look at our little granddaughter and daydream about the world she will grow up in, it does create cause for concern. Sure, she has wonderful, loving parents, and she is already fortunate being born in the greatest country on the planet. But the issues facing our society and the planet as a whole are deeply concerning. My hope for her future gives me drive, motivation, and inspiration to forge ahead and work to make our country the best it can possibly be.

  For more than eight years I was honored to serve as the representative of Utah’s 3rd Congressional District after serving as campaign manager and chief of staff to Jon Huntsman Jr., the sixteenth governor of Utah. These were amazing experiences for which I will always be grateful. Thank you.

  I am very fortunate to now be affiliated as a contributor with Fox News Networks. I consider it a rare opportunity, and one I am most grateful for. I want to thank Rupert Murdoch and the whole of the Fox News family for allowing me to share my thoughts day after day with such a wide audience. When I first arrived on the scene, I asked them what they wanted from me. They said, “Just you be you. Be authentic and tell us what you really think.” What a wonderful directive. Thank you.

  Television was a natural fit for me, but writing a book was a new experience. David Larabell and the good folks at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) walked me through the process and bridged me with the best editor in the business, Eric Nelson at Broadside, part of the HarperCollins company.

  Eric helped guide me through my first book, The Deep State, on its way to becoming a New York Times bestselling book. Wow. Not only is Eric an exceptional editor, but he has an uncanny ability to see the big picture. He has helped me focus on the most important experiences that
ultimately helped build a compelling book. None of this would have happened without that team. Thank you.

  Once again, I’ve been fortunate on this book to work with David Larabell and Eric Nelson. I enjoyed working with my team to put together the first book, but this book flowed even faster and easier. It has allowed me to share deep concerns and contribute a perspective my experiences have uniquely shaped me to see.

  At my side, making it a reality, was Jennifer Scott. From day one of my venture into politics she has been at my side. I cannot even begin to express how impressed I am with her perspective, smarts, tenacity, and grounding in conservative principles. My name is on the front of this book, but Jennifer really made it all come together into something special. From the campaign to the congressional office to my time on television and writing books, Jennifer has been the most effective and critical part of our team, and to me personally. I can’t thank her enough. Thank you, Jennifer!

  Somehow, some way, the culmination of my experiences brought me to working with Eric, David, Jennifer, and a host of others engaged in the research and writing of this book. I look back at all the things I had to experience before this book could happen. I am grateful for the many people whose support has contributed to my ability to make a cogent case in these pages. It happened and I am most grateful. Thank you.

  Whether it is in the pages of this book or in The Deep State, whether in the discussions on Fox News or in reflecting back on my time in Congress, the people I bump into have the same questions time and time again: “What can I do? What should I do?”

  I wish I had a simple, easy answer to solve all our country’s problems and challenges. There is no single, easy three-step answer to untangle our history, unify us, and fix everything.