Constitutional Crises and Other Outrages — Time to Get Back to Work
David Montgomery
As I sit here on a Friday morning, I have to make a list of the outrageous developments of the day:
- Texas defies Biden on protecting its borders, gaining the support of all Republican governors
- DOE pauses approval of LNG export terminals in order to assess their climate risk
- Democrats increase legal efforts to subvert election by taking Trump off ballots
- AI generated fakes of policy statements could trigger war
It appears the Chesapeake Observer must get back into action. I will be writing more on the incredible blunder of slowing down our capacity to export liquified natural gas, with just this simple point now: LNG exports are the lifeline we are giving Europe to replace Russian supplies. Those exports may be more important in confronting Russia than doling out inadequate military support to Ukraine. By supplying our cheap natural gas to Europe, we enable them to withstand the loss of Russian supplies and we simultaneously deprive Russia of large export revenues it needs to keep losing in Ukraine. The climate extremists once again demonstrate their control of their puppet President and Energy Secretary.
Then there is the false choice between defending Ukraine and defending our own border. As a matter of policy and budget sanity, both should be fully funded. There are trillions of dollars of Federal spending that are of lower priority and value that could be cut to fund both efforts beyond even what Ukraine now and Trump in the past have asked for.
What we do see is that once again neither the conservative Republicans in Congress nor the Biden negotiators are willing to take anything but total victory in a political standoff. Republicans have refused to grant the Administration’s request for more funding for Ukraine until they get their program for border security and immigration accepted. That kind of linkage has been in the nature of politics since the first two tribes argued over allocating meat versus nuts.
“Biden” – with quotes to indicate question of whether the guy in a suit on tv even comprehends what is going on — is not willing to accept the Republican offer on immigration and Republican negotiators cannot give away too much without losing the members of Congress who have taken stands against helping Ukraine.
I have no solution for this political deadlock, because it has been the bane of American politics for many years. I do insist that the linkage of Ukraine and the border is entirely political and artificial — any CBO budget analyst could find ample money for both in programs that deserve on their own merits to be terminated. Or, as is most likely, they would both be funded by more borrowing if the political impasse were resolved. So my position is yes to the Republicans on immigration and the border and yes to even more than the Administration proposes for Ukraine. Both are the highest priorities for new funding and legislation.
On the Texas – Washington standoff, I am encouraged by the slightly different views of Jonathan Turley of Foxnews and Andrew McCarthy of National Review. Turley stated that “This is not Fort Sumter,” no doubt to the disappointment of some on both sides. He sees it being worked out “professionally,” and points out that by continuing to roll out razor wire and prevent Border Patrol officers from interfering, Governor Abbott is not defying the Supreme Court. The Court did not order anyone stop doing anything, except for a lower court that had issued an injunction against the Border Patrol. Turley saw this as a declaration that the controversy between levels of government was not a matter for the lower court to decide.
There is no doubt a danger here, since it appears that the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety are denying Border Patrol officers entry into a park where Texas is apprehending illegal immigrants and erecting barriers. We might remember that Sanctuary cities on the Pacific Coast prevented INS officers from enforcing Federal law during the Trump administration. The Sanctuary cities’ protection of illegal immigrants was also infuriating but nobody drew their guns. In this case, I suspect the rank and file on the Federal side agree 100% with what their Texas counterparts are doing. At least one state official commented that Border Patrol and DPS officers work together on a daily basis and agree on their mission.
On a more ominous note, the Biden Administration is still asking Federal courts to stop all actions by Texas to secure its borders and arrest illegal immigrants. On this issue, Turley does not expect the Federal courts to agree with Gov Abbot’s constitutional argument. Turley strongly defends the merits of Texas’ interpretation, but he cites what I would describe as the almost constant deference of the Federal courts to the exercise of Federal police powers. McCarthy offers another legal argument that leaves aside Constitutional interpretation, which is the duty of the governor of Texas to protect its citizens. He and Turley seemed to agree on this.
If the courts rule against Texas, and Biden tries to nationalize the Texas National Guard or orders the Border Patrol to detain anyone who resists them, there could be an armed confrontation. Even if the Texas Guard were nationalized, the Texas Department of Public Safety (read Texas Rangers) would still be subject to the Governor’s orders. Then we would move closer to civil war unless the officers facing each other decided to de-escalate.
That I would have faith in, but there are many other resources, including an increasingly woke Army that is being indoctrinated to combat domestic terrorism, that Biden could send if he has another fit of paranoia and loses his temper.
None of this makes me any less worried than when I started writing, and I leave the lawfare to keep Trump off the ballot and the increasing danger of AI-driven fakes to another day. Reading about the latter did drive me to look for AI-detection software. It appears that there is a good bit, and the white hats are keeping up with the black hats again.