article_snippet.sent: Yet at the state and local level, the story has been much different.
article_snippet.sent: The drive for same-sex marriage equality took hold in the states before reaching the federal level.
article_snippet.sent: The most exciting ideas are taking hold at the local level.
article_snippet.sent: As the Atlantic's James Fallows explained to the audience, when one moves beneath the gridlock of Washington and down to the towns and communities of New America, it is quickly possible to see the "functionality of politics" -- where partisanship does not trump the need to solve problems.
article_snippet.sent: Local and state politics are also proving to be arenas for great experimentation.
article_snippet.sent: As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, a "state, may if Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, a "state citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
article_snippet.sent: The result is that the policies were stronger and better tested, and some of the bad ideas had been discarded after it became clear Local policymakers and experts didn't work.
article_snippet.sent: It was easier for federal officials to build support for federal officials proposals when federal officials could point to successful experiments.
article_snippet.sent: Voters could see how Voters could work and how some of the worst predictions of opponents had not come true.
article_snippet.sent: The local arena is usually not ideal for creating big domestic policies since The local arena depends on so many actors to sustain, since the politics of each region vary so greatly and since the financial muscle of smaller levels of government is much weaker.