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.

  • AutistoMephisto
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    2210 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      510 months ago

      The funny thing is, Republicans would probably respect that. They value hierarchy and don’t have many actual policies. Biden acting like a king might actually pull voters from Trump, at the expense of actual Democrats (who probably wouldn’t vote).