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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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There is a happening currently happening along the Texas/Mexico border which seems to be escalating in an interesting way.

  • The state of Texas has been taking measures to secure their border with Mexico. These measures include installing concertina wire (colloquially known as "razor wire") along the border.

  • A supreme court ruling said that US Border Patrol (the feds) are allowed to go into Texas against Texas's wishes and cut this wire. As /u/slowboy points out below, it is a bit more nuanced than that. There was an injunction preventing CBP from going to cut the wires, and the Supreme Court overruled it. Interesting culture war fodder: Amy Coney Barrett sided with the majority on this.

  • Yesterday, Greg Abbot signaled that he did not have any intention of complying with this.

  • Today, President Biden said that Texas has until tomorrow (Friday) to let them in. (Sorry for the low quality link here. If somebody has a better one please share it).

This does seem to be escalating rapidly. I don't see where the offramps are other than Abbot backing down. If he doesn't, what does that mean? Texas National Guard vs the Federal Government sounds awfully close to...I hate saying this, but a civil war? That's not right though since I can't imagine them shooting at each other.

This is also confusing to me politically. The border situation is not a political win for Biden. Even among liberals the cracks are starting to show. Morning Joe (msnbc show) this morning was talking about how there is a border crisis and it's the republicans causing all this illegal immigration by not doing a "Comprehensive Immigration Policy". That's obviously absurd, but it does show that liberals are willing to agree that completely open borders are suboptimal.

Edit: Trump weighs in

This, to my stupid non-lawyer brain, seems way more like an "incitement to insurrection" than anything he said on January 6th. Interesting.

I don't see where the offramps are other than Abbot backing down.

I can think of a few more:

  • Biden backing down. Probably won't happen in a public way, but still possible.

  • Federal agents refusing to follow orders that would result in conflict with Texas. Not necessarily publicly, but a form of quiet disobedience.

  • A really silly game of the feds cutting the wire, leaving, and the Texas putting up more wire immediately.

A really silly game of the feds cutting the wire, leaving, and the Texas putting up more wire immediately.

The wire under consideration is in a park that Texas is refusing to allow federal agents into.

Federal agents refusing to follow orders that would result in conflict with Texas. Not necessarily publicly, but a form of quiet disobedience.

With the border patrol union statements in support of Greg Abbot, this will probably happen.

With the border patrol union statements in support of Greg Abbot, this will probably happen.

"Sorry boss we ran out of gas on the way"

How long could that really go on before we are in a similar sortof mass insubordination crisis?