politics @lemmy.world MicroWave @lemmy.world 1y ago

GOP Governors Invoke the Confederate Theory of Secession to Justify Border Violations

slate.com GOP Governors Invoke the Confederate Theory of Secession to Justify Border Violations

We have been here before. It does not end well.

This week, Republican governors across the country escalated their conflict with the Biden administration over the southern border by invoking the same legal theory that slave states wielded to justify secession before the Civil War.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, joined by 25 other GOP governors, now argues that the Biden administration has violated the federal government’s “compact” with the states—an abdication that justifies state usurpation of federal authority at the border.

This language embraces the Confederacy’s conception of the Constitution as a mere compact that states may exit when they feel it has been broken. It’s dangerous rhetoric that transcends partisan grandstanding. And as before, it’s being used to legitimize both nullification and dehumanization.

99 comments

You know what happens when theories are tested and found out to be false?

They're no longer used.
- Republicans: "Since when??"
- Ivermectin, creationism, abstinence policy on anything, trickle-down; were you thinking of any of those theories?
Even a single red state 'leaving' the US would crush their house majority and deprive them of two senators. No way it happens.
- Stop, now I want it to happen
- Even better, since they receive more federal money than they give, we'd be left with excess money that can be used for states that actually give a damn about their people.
  
  Texas might be the one red state that's not true for. They make a lot of money, it helps that they have oil.
- Yeah, but they know a Democratic majority in the Senate will have just enough Manchins to be effectively a Republican majority.
  
  I love how you're downvoted for saying something factually true. It's so insanely frustrating how much in denial Americans are about Democrats being center-right.
When I hear shit like this, it makes me think Sherman didn’t go far enough. He should’ve eradicated the South and given the land to the union. Slaveowners should’ve been arrested and stripped of their property rights. Southern states should’ve been dissolved and their governments reconstituted by the union.

The union should’ve crushed the south and occupied it like the US occupied Nazi Germany post-WWII.
- "Each Dixie boy must understand that he must mind his Uncle Sam!"
- I live in Tennessee and I've had 2 coworkers tell me, independently of one another, that Nazis got a "raw deal" and that, and I quote, "their opinions are just as relevant" as Democrat opinions.
  
  These are guys who go to church and like to brag about how über Christian they are while simultaneously saying that Texans should be allowed to legally open fire on immigrants. Lincoln was too light on the South and Andrew Johnson was so shitty that he openly tried to benefit the postbellum Southerners.
  
  The South continues to prove that it didn't deserve the reconstruction. Imagine if Germans allowed pieces of shit to openly fly swastika flags and proclaim that "The Reich will rise again."
  
  That's what we're up against here. Every single day I see the "rebel" flag being flown and celebrated and about once a month I hear someone in public talking about how there should be a rebellion. They legitimately believe that they can fight off the United States military and their rationale is that "The government won't open fire on its own citizens" so they can just attack unabated.
  
  It's fucking banana sandwiches in this shit hole.
If these GOP governors actually gave a shit about fixing the border, they would be pushing the GOP congress to unblock the border bill. But they want the crisis to fester so they can campaign on it.

Opportunist scum.
- At this point Biden should stretch executive privilege and figure out how to check off as many boxes on the bill that he can. He's already subverted Congress getting aid to Israel.
  
  What's the worst that can happen? They impeach him? They already are determined to at least give that show. I would love to see ComerPyle try to explain how they are impeaching him over increased border security.
  
  Maybe Texas sues him. Okay Abbot, let's see how you justify suing the administration for providing more border agents, more tech, more personnel and resources.
  
  One could argue that the MAGAts in Congress have breached the covenant of 3 coequal branches of government. I would never say that any one branch should act unilaterally, or do so without potential consequence, but this is mad. They are not doing their job, they aren't debating, and are actively throwing a tantrum like a child.
I invoke the Sherman Rebuke of Secession.
- Speeding towards a 21st century version of American civil war doesn't seem the smartest thing to do. 🙄
  
  As opposed to a 21st century version of the Jim Crow century? Ceding lawful Federal authority to ultraconservative states is nothing less than a cession of the rights of US society to ultraconservative cretins, and is notoriously hard to reverse.
  
  Civil War in the U.S. is highly unlikely in the current economy. Firstly because big business would never allow that kind of hit to the stock market, but also because you're not going to get people leaving their families and going to the front lines when everyone is living paycheck-to-paycheck without a draft and good luck with trying to institute a draft.
  
  They're not smart people.
  
  Yeah it does, time to fight and get it over with.
  
  Start new on the other side.
He’s got the US flag behind him, and he’s threatening to secede?!!
- I mean his hero is a presidential candidate who is selling shirts that say 'No Surrender' under a photo of his mugshot, taken after he surrendered to the police.
  
  Yeah but was volunteering to help out the police. Or something.
- That flag doesn’t symbolize America. It symbolizes Merika.
  
  Oh yes of course. Please forgive my ignorance of their blessed wisdom.
At this point I think Biden needs to just call their bluff. He should come back with, "Okay, here's all the plans we've drawn up to go into effect as soon as you ratify your secession."

Then present the plans that include cessation of all federal subsidies to all public and private Texas entities, removal of all US military personnel and equipment, removal of all other federal agencies and personal (eg. Federal Border Patrol, Park rangers, IRS), removal of the Federal reserve in Dallas, the construction of border walls around the state in NM, OK, AR, and LA asking with placement of the removed border patrol there, and so on.

Let them stew for a bit and chew on just how utterly fucked this state (yeah I live in TX, and early awaiting the day we can leave) would be if they really did successfully secede.
- You forgot one: We're gonna invade the nation of Texas, because they have oil.
  
  You mean bring them Freedom ™
  
  Tell them we - the real America - will be keeping all the mineral rights, thanks. They can enjoy the going Galt without any of OUR resources, thankyouveryfuckingmuch.
- If they really did secede, I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume you would still have travel rights in the US. Better get out before it happens.
  
  Like everything else, it's a risk trade-off calculation. On the one hand, I'd love to leave now, but If we leave before 2029, it could cost us potentially $1-3million in teacher retirement pension. (spread across 20-30+ years as my wife can retire quite early because she started so young)
  
  So one must balance the risk of Texas really seceding vs the financial cost of leaving early.
  
  At this stage, while it's a 'fun' (I use that term very loosely) thought experiment, I think the likelihood of Texas actually seceding is pretty low. If at some point it starts to look like it's actually likely, then we'll reevaluate if it makes sense to let go of that much money.
  
  I'm vaguely curious, though not enough to go look it up, how issues of citizenship have been handled in other peaceful separations, like that of Czechoslovakia.
  
  The answer I would find most reasonable, though not necessarily most likely, is to give everyone a certain amount of time to declare which citizenship they choose to retain.
  
  Then we can just have the U.S.A. Union, which gives a unified visa, currency, and unified government.
  
  It's literally never going to happen.
- Oklahoma should start building the wall for fun.
- Something like this is why Brexit
Hmm some sort of crisis with the south nullifying federal laws. I wonder where we’ve seen that before?

Im only kidding, this isn’t really the same situation, but there’s definitely shades of gray shared.
- Maybe more relation than you might think.
  The southern border states rely on illegal immigration for cheap labour to suppress wages of citizens.
If President Biden doesn't come down hard on this he's going to be remembered as a second Buchanan.
- The GOP wants him to take the bait. Their goal is to block humane border legislation, implement inhumane alternative solutions, and taunt Biden into removing the inhumane shit. That way they can campaign on “Biden wants to aggressively keep the status quo at the border.”
  
  If Biden is going to crack down on Texas, he also needs to have some sort of big bold alternative thing in place.
  
  I don't know, it's really a lose lose either way. Biden is either too soft and the GOP calls it a win and does something worse, or he is too tough and he's called a dictator. I'd rather he take decisive action and put the fear of God in them than let it escalate and get even more immigrants killed. Honestly after the shipping migrants to liberal states stunt he should have thrown the book and/or CIA at 'em.
  
  I say to fucking take the bait. Come down hard, be a "tyrant" for once. Do what Lincoln did, suspend habeas corpus, declare martial law, slap every GOP Governor siding with this shit in handcuffs. They want to act like criminals, treat them as criminals.
  
  Just one thing. They're going to claim he's lawless no matter what. He could give them everything they want and they will still claim it. He's already the most conservative Democrat president on the border in modern times.
  
  He could ask Congress whether we should send troops and aid to El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, to address the humanitarian crisis that is driving refugees to US borders.
- Why not? He is already the second jackson
Imagine Abraham Lincoln hearing this about his own Republican party.
- Lincoln would not recognize the current republican party as his own. He'd call them pretenders and go back to chopping trees in the woods.
- He would just call them Democrats.
  
  The parties did a flip flop. Democrats used to be the conservative party.
General Sherman should've finished the job.
Legal eagle just did a piece on this: https://youtu.be/1dhvry6E0jA?si=K9C7aTtOsaY1uPK_
- Remember kids.
Weird, the right wing keeps trying to lie and imply that KKK/Confederates somehow have something to do with today's Democratic Party and not the conservative movement....

Huh.
Say they're in rebellion, pull funding, personnel, and representation, watch them collapse.
/queue Inevitable Betrayal smashcut

/starwipe to roll credits
- *cue

99 comments