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Notes -
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.
The 101st Airborne shows up at the governor's mansion to arrest him for insurrection.
Biden is old, not senile. I would think arresting the governor is probably the single biggest win condition Abbot has in all of this, people gaming out crazy stuff like him shutting off the grid nonwithstanding. If he gets arrested, he has an incredibly clear shot at becoming president before 2032. Unlike Trump, Abbot hasn't actually done things that would make charges against him stick, and would be able to beat the drum of political persecution/abuse of power far more effectively.
You can't become President if you're in ADX Florence awaiting execution on a treason conviction.
It's just the other way around. Trump has done nothing but engage in lawfare and run his mouth, and the Democrats have largely successfully memed it into insurrection. If Abbott defies Federal authority with force -- and he's come close but hasn't yet -- he actually has committed insurrection.
As a Texan who has been a lifelong democrat voter, arresting and charging Abbot with treason over this would force me to swallow my dislike and vote straight ticket republican for a decade until he gets pardoned. I tend to thing I'm not alone in this, and that Biden's pollsters know it. Is Abbot in the wrong? Yeah, probably. But arresting a sitting governor who is toeing the line of the letter of the law is not the appropriate escalation for this. Charging him with treason is beyond the pale. It's a huge escalation and a violation of the principles that allow us to maintain a civil society. We didn't execute governors when they were fighting for segregation, and I really doubt we're about to start now. I'm already iffy on what's going on with Trump, and he did blatantly attempt to abuse his authority to convince his subordinates to subvert state certifications.
The appropriate escalation here is judicial and administrative remedies, what Biden is currently pursuing. It might be slow and cumbersome, but it avoids tearing our society apart, which is the whole reason we have a federal government in the first place.
So? Even if your state retains electoral votes rather than being involved in a mini-Reconstruction, Texas was Red anyway.
The Democrats have already demonstrated they're willing to go beyond the pale.
Which is a lot LESS than ordering troops to defy Federal authority, which is just about where we are.
"We" (Kennedy) Federalized the Alabama national guard and sent in the 101st Airborne, and George Wallace backed down. If he hadn't, he might well have been executed.
Democratic federal authority hangs by a thread atm and they don't currently have anywhere near the mandate Kennedy did when putting down segregationists. If Biden arrests Abbot, my current read of the situation is he would basically be certain to lose the presidency as a result. You might disagree on how the votes shake out, but it's pretty clear Abbot thinks the same. It's precisely because Biden is extremely unpopular and this is an election year that he's being so bold.
Abbot is very carefully not doing that. The recent court ruling does not forbid Abbot from continuing to place razor wire blockades.
Personally, I think that the way this ends is with Biden doing nothing substantial until he gets an actual court victory or wins the election, and Abbot then backing down.
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