A clash between Texas and the Biden administration over who controls the Texas-Mexico border continues to escalate this week as federal officials once again demanded the state give Border Patrol agents access to a park that is a popular corridor for migrants to enter the United States illegally.

This comes in response to a recent Supreme Court decision, where the court allowed federal officials to dismantle a wire barrier along the border, prompting a legal battle initiated by Texas. Texas argued that this action, aimed at aiding migrants, infringes on state sovereignty and damages Texas security measures.

In response to this decision, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a letter arguing that Texas has a right to control the border and that it supersedes federal government control. Abbottā€™s accusation that the federal government has breached the Constitution by having ā€œbroken the compact between the United States and the Statesā€ is almost identical to South Carolinaā€™s 1860 declaration of secession.

Furthermore, Abbottā€™s letter espouses the fringe theory of constitutional law known as ā€œcompact theory,ā€ popularized by Confederate states during the Civil War era and supported by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent
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    9 months ago

    While I do agree that people tend to ignore the ā€œnormalā€ people who wil lbe impacted by this: The reason many of those wealthy individuals are wealthy exists in other states. If they are given the ultimatum of ā€œGet the fuck back in the US or we are claiming spacexā€ then they very rapidly are ā€œpunishedā€.

    That said: the ā€œTexas is really purpleā€ argument holds a lot less water than people tend to claim. Ever since 2020 (really before it, but that was the big push) there has been a strong push for ā€œdemocratsā€ to move to Texas. Becauseā€¦ it is so much cheaper because they arenā€™t paying for social infrastructure and they get a lot of the NIMBY benefits while pretending they are ā€œgood peopleā€. LOTS of DINOs. They might not be full alt-right magats but there is a reason that the blatant gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement doesnā€™t have much pushback.

    That isnā€™t to say that there arenā€™t large numbers of people in Houston and the like who just have no mobility and are increasingly worried they will literally become slaves. But also understand that places like Austin would very much vote for a ā€œmoderate Bush-era republicanā€ if the option arose.

    • ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      If they are given the ultimatum of ā€œGet the fuck back in the US or we are claiming spacexā€ then they very rapidly are ā€œpunishedā€.

      Sure, that hurts Elon Musk. I would be interested to know how many of the Republican politicians in red states actually have a majority of their wealth and assets in blue states. Sanctions have to hurt the people in control of the red state governments to even be worthwhile.

      Becauseā€¦ it is so much cheaper because they arenā€™t paying for social infrastructure and they get a lot of the NIMBY benefits while pretending they are ā€œgood peopleā€. LOTS of DINOs. They might not be full alt-right magats but there is a reason that the blatant gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement doesnā€™t have much pushback.

      Iā€™m not convinced this disqualifies them from our sympathy if a hypothetical secession attempt by their state government causes them undue misery. Iā€™ve been looking into people moving to Texas.

      This is one of the articles I found. It seems like most of the people moving to Texas are going to vote Republican. I would like to read the articles youā€™ve seen on the topic as I couldnā€™t find much on Democrats moving to Texas other than this one. At the end it mentions one family moved to Austin and they seem progressive. Itā€™s an interesting demographic shift regardless.

      But also understand that places like Austin would very much vote for a ā€œmoderate Bush-era republicanā€ if the option arose.

      Again I donā€™t have a lot knowledge about Democrats in Texas. It seems like if that were true they would run some neo-conservatives that were like Bush. These are the candidates that the Democratic Party is fielding against Ted Cruz in Texas.

      They seem progressive, on the surface anyway. Especially this guy:

      ā€œIā€™m a progressive and I do not apologize for it,ā€ Gutierrez said. ā€œThatā€™s the way we win in November, not by moving to the middle, but by inspiring every Democrat in this state to go get new voters and go meet these people.ā€

      I would interested to read any polling date or news articles youā€™ve seen about it to be more informed on this.