America’s political fault lines run so clearly along the city/country divide as they do today

David Gergen : Of the top 35 cities in America by population, only four have Republican mayors.

He says GOP legislatures and governors can’t stop city residents from electing Democrats , but they’ve devised a whopper of a Plan B: negating majority rule in those areas by denying those cities the right to enact any laws or promote policies that run counter to the governor and the legislature.

Gergen says the underlying racism in such preemptions is never very far from the surface.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that its sponsors were calling “the preemption to end all government preemptions,” Texans have taken a commanding lead.

The new law permits businesses to sue local governments for ordinances or regulations they deem to be “arbitrary or unreasonable” The law is well within the classic mode of preemption legislation, originating with businesses seeking to free themselves from regulation.

A Texas court struck down the Death Star law on August 30 , though it’s still on the books for now because state Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an appeal.

The fate of Florida 's preemption-amok law is similarly unclear.

No comparably clear delegation of powers between states and localities exists, and the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of local governments.