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.
I live in Tennessee and I’ve had 2 coworkers tell me, independently of one another, that Nazis got a “raw deal” and that, and I quote, “their opinions are just as relevant” as Democrat opinions.
These are guys who go to church and like to brag about how über Christian they are while simultaneously saying that Texans should be allowed to legally open fire on immigrants. Lincoln was too light on the South and Andrew Johnson was so shitty that he openly tried to benefit the postbellum Southerners.
The South continues to prove that it didn’t deserve the reconstruction. Imagine if Germans allowed pieces of shit to openly fly swastika flags and proclaim that “The Reich will rise again.”
That’s what we’re up against here. Every single day I see the “rebel” flag being flown and celebrated and about once a month I hear someone in public talking about how there should be a rebellion. They legitimately believe that they can fight off the United States military and their rationale is that “The government won’t open fire on its own citizens” so they can just attack unabated.
It’s fucking banana sandwiches in this shit hole.