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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30396 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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Constitutional crisis? How the hell is the Federal Government asserting its authority to arrest someone on United States territory for federal crimes a constitutional crisis?

When that "someone" is a state governor or a current candidate for national office.

Of course Biden would send the troops in.

So you agree; Biden would use the US military to arrest and imprison his opposition, were that opposition to be assisted by a state in resisting non-military Federal forces.

So you agree; Biden would use the US military to arrest and imprison his opposition, were that opposition to be assisted by a state in resisting non-military Federal forces.

I think he’d do it for people who aren’t his political opposition too. If say, Iowa had decided that it really liked crypto scams and gave SBF a full bodyguard detachment of state troopers, I think Biden would do the same thing. You can’t let states start pulling shit like that.

"You can't let [X] start pulling shit like that" is the fundamental logic of escalation that dooms this entire process. If we could agree on what the rules are and what to do when they're broken, and then stick to that, none of this would be necessary.

I kinda thought we did exactly that with the supremacy clause of the constitution.

Would that be the same way that the second amendment prevented gun control?

You're appealing to rules, but rules derive their power from the perception of legitimacy, and it's the perception of legitimacy that's going away here. You think "You can't let states defy the feds, so send in the troops". The other side thinks "you can't let the security organs be used as partisan weapons, so defiance is necessary". Both sides escalate, searching for a way to make the other fold. Sooner or later, one side or the other does something that makes the cycle so self-perpetuating that it can't be stopped.

Many such cases, as the saying goes.

Why would running for office, even holding office, shield someone against the feds? It’s certainly not addressed by the Constitution.

For the record, I’m officially launching my candidacy for President and the formation of a Rules Lawyer Party.

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