These explanations are not primarily philosophical. They’re about winning. In the face of painful electoral losses, Democrats are rediscovering the strategic case for activism at the state and local level. Yet there are deep historical and ideological reasons why the party has tended to focus on the federal government as a means of making policy. An ideological shift would be much more important, and is more unlikely, than a strategic one.

As Democrats move to focus on state and local politics in 2017, this distinction between ideology and strategy will be important to watch. The party, and progressives more broadly, could take up a friendly posture toward state and local governance on the grounds that Americans should directly influence the laws that constrain them and the policies that supposedly benefit them. Alternatively, this sudden impulse toward state and local organizing could prove instrumental and temporary, doomed to reversal whenever the party wins back the U.S. Senate or the White House. Democrats’ approach to federalism will matter for the future of the party and the permanence of its policies. But ultimately, it will show what Democratic leaders really believe about people’s proper role in their government.

For some progressives, a renewed focus on state and local politics is primarily about obstructing Washington Republicans. Heather Gerken, a Yale law professor, wrote a piece for Vox about why the left should embrace federalism in the coming years—essentially, she argued, it offers ways to counteract federal policies. “Progressives at the state and local level can influence policy simply by refusing to partner with the federal government,” she wrote. “If blue states and cities refuse to implement Trump’s agenda, Republicans will sometimes be forced to compromise rather than pay a political and fiscal price.”

For others, local politics are more important in their own right. “We think there’s a lot of importance in protecting local democracy,” said Nikki Fortunato Bas, the executive director of the Partnership for Working Families, a network of regional advocacy organizations that work on economic and environmental issues. “It’s in the communities [where] we live [that] we’re most connected to the need of our neighbors, and lawmakers are most connected to the needs of their constituents.”

Regardless of their reasons for wanting to focus on state and local politics, Democrats will be limited by the enormous imbalances of party power in governors’ mansions, state legislatures, and city halls. Especially during Obama’s second term in office, the party lost control and influence in a number of statehouses. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the party controls roughly half as many state legislatures as it did in 2010, and roughly half as many states will enter 2017 with a partisan split compared to the same year. Similarly, Democrats have been losing governships steadily since Obama took office in 2008: Compared to the 29 states held by Democrats that year, the party now holds 16. The only place where Democrats still dominate across the country is in large cities, where they control many city halls.