Getting ready

During the week since the public voted against Donald Trump for president, a number of individuals, institutions and interests have spoken about the impact of his being appointed to the job by presidential electors anyway.

Organized labor, which conducted aggressive campaigns for Hillary Clinton and down-ballot Democrats in Nevada, is not saying much about what it expects of Trump. Nevada AFL-CIO executive Danny Thompson said in a prepared statement, “We are calling on all those elected to work for the betterment of working families in Nevada and across the country. The election is over. But we are more committed than ever to helping working people win a voice on the job and in our democracy.”

The Communications Workers of America were a bit more specific: “CWA and the labor movement are more determined than ever to protect working families, jobs and communities, and we’re ready [to] hold President-elect Trump to his promises to advance the middle class.”

A movement for higher minimum wages around the nation made some gains. Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Maine voted for $12 minimum wages by 2020, Washington to $13.50 by 2020. They join 17 states and an unknown number of cities that had already raised minimums in earlier elections.

In 2006, Nevada raised the minimum to a dollar higher than the national minimum. But tying the state minimum to the relatively stagnated federal minimum is questioned by some.

Economic Analysis and Research Network analyst David Cooper said after the election, “With so much activity at the state level, some lawmakers and business groups have argued that there is no need to raise the federal minimum wage and that minimum wage policy should be ’left to the states.’ Unfortunately, this attitude has left roughly 40 percent of the U.S. workforce subject to minimum wages that are woefully inadequate.”

Twenty-one states have the federal minimum of $7.25.

The casino lobby expects a lot from Trump. American Gaming Association CEO Geoff Freeman: “The AGA will leverage our industry’s 40-state presence to coalesce a powerful network of congressional leaders willing to promote favorable public policies and block overzealous federal efforts that add unnecessary costs and inefficiencies to our businesses. While we are optimistic a Trump Administration will feature significantly more restrained federal agencies than what our industry and many others experienced over the last eight years, the challenges before us remain great. … Tuesday’s results ushered in a new era in Washington, D.C. The gaming industry is well positioned to thrive in this new environment.”

Among Muslims, Council on American-Islamic Relations Ibrahim Hooper spokesperson, said, “I don’t think leaving the country is what anyone would recommend. … We’re here, we’re not going anywhere, and we’re going to defend our rights and the rights of all Americans regardless of who’s in the highest office in the land.”

Environmental groups worry Trump will succeed in ending the Clean Power Plan, exacerbating climate effects such as wildfires in the Great Basin. The CPP, proposed by President Obama in 2015, is intended to reduce anthropogenic climate change by setting standards for power plants and for states to reduce carbon pollution, thus encouraging the growth of clean energy.

It is under challenge in court—Nevada’s Republican attorney general has signed on to that challenge—and was enjoined by the U.S. Supreme Court until the appeals process is complete. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who during his tenure reduced Nevada’s reliance on coal, called the CPP a way of reducing “carbon pollution, extreme weather and rising sea levels.”

What Trump’s administration will mean for women is far from certain. MomsRising.org CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, said in a statement, “Many of us are reeling. Some of our children have difficult questions about their own safety, about their friends, and about the future of our country.”

Make It Work Action co-director Vivien Labaton said, “Families are drowning under out of reach child care costs, no access to paid family leave, and a persistent gender and racial wage gap. President-elect Trump needs to prove that he is going to work for women and working families by prioritizing the issues that we face every day. The proposals on paid leave and child care that Trump unveiled as a candidate were woefully inadequate. They would primarily benefit wealthy families, and they exclude fathers and nontraditional families.”

Nevada gained a woman U.S. senator, a woman U.S. House member, two women in the Nevada Senate and one woman in the Nevada Assembly. Both state legislative houses flipped from Republican to Democratic, possibly a reaction to the hard-edged right wing agenda of the 2015 legislative session, including a program that paid Nevada parents to take their children out of public school. The Assembly is now 27-15 Democrats, the Senate 11-10.

Battle Born Progress executive director Annette Magnus said in a statement, “We now expect the tone of the upcoming legislative session to be very different from the 2015 session where workers rights, civil liberties, women’s rights and access to public education were under constant attack. Today is only the beginning. Our work isn’t over. We will now work to hold all of our elected officials accountable and ensure that they are representing all of the people who elected them.”

“Nevada voters made a clear statement about the direction they want for their state,” said EMILY’s List vice president Lucinda Guinn. “Voters have rejected the anti-woman, anti-family agenda of both Nevada chambers.”

Though Nevada has just made regulated marijuana legal, prohibitionists such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana say they will “explore legal options against the industry and we will continue to engage in states with stakeholders around this issue, as well as with the new U.S. Congress and presidential administration.” This includes “making sure data is collected, municipalities are empowered to ban stores in their neighborhoods, and the industry pays for their damage.”

Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol spokesperson Joe Brezny responded that “members of law enforcement will now be able to spend their time preventing and investigating serious crimes that actually harm people. As we move forward, we look forward to working with legislators and regulators to ensure that this system is regulated in a manner that benefits consumers and enhances public health.”

To help citizens keep track of the new president’s record, ProCon.org is a 501c3 nonprofit educational site. Its CEO, Kamy Akhavan, said, “We have spent the last year finding Donald Trump’s statements on 75 policy issues from death penalty (pro) and same-sex marriage (con) to fracking (pro) and oil company subsidies (con) to medical marijuana (pro) and closing Guantanamo (con). Our staff of professional researchers have scoured articles, speeches, interviews, transcripts, you name it.”