Well, howdy there, Internet people. It's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

Democratic governors formalizing their opposition to Trump by networking. We've talked a couple of times

about state-level Democrats organizing to oppose Trump through the courts. Once, when it was still kind of rumor and background

noise, and then recently, when the officials from across the country made what seemed to be

coordinated statements within a very brief amount of time. Now, there's a formal structure

coming into shape.

It's called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, and the governors of Colorado and Illinois announced that they'll be running point.

The website says they will be using, quote, the collective strength, experience, and

institutional knowledge in governor's offices

across the country to craft laws and policies that protect the rule of law and serve the people

of our great states.

They're not even remotely attempting to conceal the nature of the organization.

It says, quote, the nation faces increasing threats against American democracy, including

the dangers of authoritarianism and the undermining of democratic institutions.

It looks like the general template being used is the same one that brought about

the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, which is a network of state-level officials working to

protect reproductive rights. Governors safeguarding democracy and the Reproductive Freedom

Alliance have a through line with another group.

It's a nonprofit called the Governor's Action Alliance. Will this work? Maybe. The Reproductive Freedom

Alliance saw success at enacting shield laws and putting things in place at the state level.

There's a number of interesting things about this.

First is the formalizing of coordination, the media releases, the press contact forms on the site, and so on,

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