I’m sure that by now, we’re all aware of what is continuing to take place down in Texas. Far from backing down in his standoff with FedGov over the seizure of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass and subsequent expulsion of federal agents, Gov. Abbott has directed the state’s National Guard to continue interdicting illegal immigrants. Indeed, in response to the recent SCOTUS decision allowing the Feds to dismantle the razor wire Texas installed, they’ve simply installed more, in direct defiance of the wishes of the Regime. The Regime has now responded by giving Abbott and Texas an ultimatum - restore control of the park to the Federal government by the afternoon of January 26, or…well…something. Whether the governour ultimately continues to tell the Feds to get bent remains to be seen, but so far the trend is looking pretty good.
Of course, it helps that - for once - Republicans across the country have actually found a little courage to support doing what’s right. As of writing this, the Republican governours of 25 other states have all issued statements of support for Texas’ position. Hence, there are now an outright majority of states whose executives (who control their various National and State Guards) are publicly backing Texan efforts to secure our border. Many of these governours have explicitly cited the Biden administration’s continued abandonment of the federal government’s constitutional duty to protect the several states from invasion and the constitutional right of the states to act in their own defence as sovereign entities in their own right.
Needless to say, this is a constitutional crisis that would not have been conceivable even twenty years ago (well, except for this one movie that seems to have been amazingly prescient). Since 1865, the doctrine of absolute federal supremacy has been in force and the balance of power between the state and national governments has inexorably trended in Washington, DC’s favour. Occasional spurts of opposition to the contrary, most of the previous incipient talk by states about “reining in the federal government” generally proved to be all words and no action. On a few things (e.g. marijuana legalisation), the Regime allowed states to “oppose” federal policy if these were policies that the Regime wanted to change anywise but couldn’t “officially” at the federal level. But on anything that was a true Regime priority, FedGov brooked no dissent. So it is now, but the calculus has changed. What would have been impossible in 2003 is now on the verge of happening in 2023.
This all highlights the fundamental illegitimacy of our current federal government. There is no moral or legal case to be made to justify the actions of the Biden administration. The federal Constitution both enjoins the federal government to protect the states from foreign invasion (which being overrun with millions of foreigners breaking our laws most certainly counts as) and also grants the states the right to protect their own borders and sovereignty. Instead of doing this, the Biden administration has been purposefully inviting hordes of migrants to enter this country. Indeed, this is being encouraged in contravention to statutory federal law as well. Further, if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is correct (and he almost assuredly is), the administration has even been partnering with criminal cartels to smuggle illegals into this country. All in all, there is absolutely no justification to be credibly made for the Regime’s actions and anyone who supports them are in opposition to the Constitution, the laws, and the people of this land.
Despite the fevered ravings of various progressive “Christians” on social media, the moral argument for allowing the Regime to throw the gates open is nonsense. Indeed, the whole attempt to craft a “biblical” argument for open borders is simple-minded and ignorant of the relevant scriptural and historical context. Simply put, the Bible’s approach to “the stranger” falls into line with common ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean modes of hospitality that were meant to “tame” the foreigner and integrate him into a society, thus preventing him from causing disruption to that society. If that couldn’t be accomplished, then the “inhospitable foreigner” was either to be expelled or eliminated. Needless to say, this applied only to individuals or small family groups - large masses of foreigners attempting to enter an ancient country would have been rightly recognised as an invasion and dealt with accordingly.
However, the illegitimacy of the current Regime and its actions alone can’t explain why the Republicans have closed ranks so precipitously. After all, Republican politicians are not exactly known for their intestinal fortitude when faced with opposition of any kind. Yet, even Northeastern moderate squishes like New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu have signed onto supporting Texas in this. Something changed that has caused the GOP, almost as a whole, to support this, either openly or tacitly.
Obviously, for the most part we are not privy to what goes on behind the scenes in the various centres of power across this country. Still, I’m convinced that what drives this sudden willingness to risk their political power and reputation (and even a possible civil war, if FedGov wants to push it that far) is that there’s a factional conflict taking place among our elites. Republicans have to know that the current demographic trends in this country - driven largely by unrestricted legal and illegal immigration - will sooner rather than later render them irrelevant politically (which is what is intended). Now, they’ve had to pretend that this wasn’t the case and even played along with the “we need immigrants to do the jobs Americans won’t do” line. But they have to know it. I suspect that they’ve been looking for an opportunity to extricate themselves from this, but only now have been handed the means to do so by the widespread, growing resentment against the Regime’s border policies.
But why take the plunge now? My guess is that, at some point pretty recently, it was communicated to Republicans that under no circumstances will they be allowed to share in any of the collateral benefits accrued from controlling the coming, transformed cosmopolitan America. Once the Bolsheviks secured control of Russia after the Revolution, they eliminated all opposing parties, even their previous partners. In the same way, progressive Leftists imagine that they’ve secured control here in the USA and are planning the same process here but jumped the gun. I wonder if the Republicans have finally figured out how to start using the type of patron/client politics that the Democrats have used for decades? And if so, is one or more of them ready to try to pick up the crown that’s just laying there in the gutter waiting to be claimed?
This whole matter illustrates the continuing collapse of the current system, following precisely along Turchinian lines toward decentralisation and decomplexification (which states deciding to leave, or even just start ignoring federal diktat, would represent in our situation). What we may be seeing now is an opening example of intraelite competition, where different elite factions enter into conflict for dwindling resources and power, generally accompanying secular collapse phases. As such, it would actually be to the Republican governours’ advantage to encourage acceleration that destabilises Blue Regime.
Bringing us to this point shows the wisdom of the earlier policy pursued by Texas and Florida of bussing migrants into Blue cities so as to overwhelm them. This move was panned by some critics on the Right who said that it just spreads the migrant problem further into the country (which was already happening, however, except they were being moved by FedGov and NGO “charities” all over into Red areas everywhere, not just a few cities). Yet, we now see that doing this forced the issue out into the open and has made even many Blue voters have to deal with the consequences of their retrograde voting behaviour. The Overton Window on this issue has been pushed way to Right in a relatively short amount of time.
This “governours revolt” is something the Regime needs to figure out how to quash real quick before it gets out of hand, if the Regime wants to stay in power and retain any semblance of legitimacy. A lot of people, both foreign and domestically, are already smelling the blood in the water. How to squash this, of course, is the trillion dollar question.
There are, of course, a bunch of idiot redditards on social media who are just champing at the bit for Biden to federalise the National Guards and initiate airstrikes on Texas and other Red states. This, obviously, isn’t going to happen and if it did would unite pretty much everybody who is not a grossly indoctrinated left-wing whackadoodle against them. At the same time, simply doing nothing would telegraph weakness in the face of opposition and probably be the stone that initiates an avalanche of state disobedience to the Feds on pretty much everything.
The most likely course will be more lawfare and attempts at sanctioning dissenting states (be a shame if that highway money didn’t get budgeted for you next year, eh?) coupled with a full-court press in the media to show as many little Mexican kids floating face down in the Rio Grande as they possibly can.
In the face of this, it will be hard for Republican politicians in our increasingly effeminised America to resist backing down when the longhouse really starts cranking out its disapproval. However, they must stand firm. Build a wall, stop the inflow of migrants, force these folks to do the heavy lifting of making their own countries better places to live, thus navigating a middle path between equally ugly alternatives. Most of all, encourage Republicans to take their role as Heritage America’s patronal faction seriously. Collapse is coming - it can’t be avoided - but stopping the flow will help to keep things from becoming maximally bad, which is basically the course we’re on now.
All Abbot has to do is not fold. The optics and implications of federal forces initiating violence toward American citizens who are trying to keep masses of non-citizens from streaming across the border would be too much to recover from. Biden would have to back down. That said, this administration is catastrophically dumb so who knows what they might end up doing.
Interestingly, this whole issue seems to be getting very little coverage from the MSM. This suggests to me that they're planning on just quietly ignoring it. It's only one little town, after all. If they refuse to report on it, Biden doesn't look weak.