The GOP candidate had said last week that states could secede if they felt the need to do so.
Nikki Haley, fresh off her Civil War history refresher on this week’s Saturday Night Live, appeared to remember what the Constitution allowed when it comes to state secession: nothing.
Haley again walked back her comments saying states could choose if they wanted to secede from the U.S., telling CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that she didn’t believe the Constitution afforded them that right. It came days after she told radio host Charlamagne tha God that states like Texas could “make the decisions that their people want to make.”
“According to the Constitution, they can’t,” Haley told CNN. “What I think they have the right to do is have the power to protect themselves and do all that. Texas has talked about that for a long time. The Constitution doesn’t allow for that.”
The GOP presidential candidate then tried to pivot to why Texas would consider such an option, citing Gov. Greg Abbott’s frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the Southern border and the state’s desire to protect itself.
You do recognize that secession won’t be a simple process where they can just leave and we keep going about our business as usual, right?
Texas has a huge effect on the national economy. A ton of commerce, energy production,manufacturing, and transport all goes through the Houston ship channel, Mexican points of entry, and across the state through I-10 and I-35.
Secession would mean almost immediate war between the US and Texas, which would cause not only significant loss of life but instability and inflation to a large number of both sides’ civilian population.
The “let them go” arguement is short sighted and unrealistic. It’s just not going to happen.
I don’t think it would be much of a war with the US having complete air superiority. Couldn’t we just drop leaflets telling people to stand clear and obliterate their grid and wait until it gets really hot or really cold while interdicting any commerce other than food and medicine. Some of those bigger facilities need hardware that isn’t easy to come by. They would probably still be in the dark 90 days after they sued for peace.