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.
Honestly, it’s the story of conservatives literally everywhere.
Conservatives in UK: We want all of the benefits of being in the EU but not pay as much into it as those other countries, use our own money.
EU: SIGH Fine!
(Later)
Conservatives in UK: We want out! We can’t stand the fact that non-white people can enter our country whenever they like. And we don’t want refuges.
EU: Fine!
(Later, after brexit)
Conservatives: why can’t we just travel to Europe like we used to?