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.
Hmm some sort of crisis with the south nullifying federal laws. I wonder where we’ve seen that before?
Im only kidding, this isn’t really the same situation, but there’s definitely shades of gray shared.
Maybe more relation than you might think.
The southern border states rely on illegal immigration for cheap labour to suppress wages of citizens.