We have been here before. It does not end well.

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.

  • PugJesus@kbin.social
    131·
    10 months ago

    but also because you’re not going to get people leaving their families and going to the front lines when everyone is living paycheck-to-paycheck without a draft and good luck with trying to institute a draft.

    Sure you are. One of the first things every civil war starts out doing is paying soldiery. What better way to lure those living paycheck-to-paycheck than offering them a paycheck AND a cause?

      • PugJesus@kbin.social
        91·
        10 months ago

        Plenty of businessmen who are absolute fucking loons. Just look at the Mypillow guy. Same way the American Revolution got started, and the US Civil War. Rich folk loan the rebel government money either out of idealism or as a bet on the success on the rebels.

        My point isn’t that it’s sustainable. My point is that it’s very possible to lure people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck to get involved in a war at the outset. The issue comes if the war drags on, and the rebel government starts to have trouble paying wages.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        That’s really just a measure of population. Texas is one of the few red “giver” states

        ETA: To answer your question, they could do the same as last time. They would issue confederate promissory notes, which would only have worth if they win. Probably at inflated numbers to appeal to greed and bypass the obvious problems with that idea