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.
The thing is, Republicans here don’t actually want to escalate, or at least the Republican politicians. They want to scream loudly that whatever Biden does is hurting them, their constituents, and the country, whether it’s “weak” inaction or authoritarian action. It is an election year after all.
Will the radicalized, bloodthirsty Republican population escalate though? That’s maybe more likely. I’d be more concerned for violence as a minority in these states than as the National Guard.