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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   26736 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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I don't see where the offramps are other than Abbot backing down.

The 101st Airborne shows up at the governor's mansion to arrest him for insurrection.

Biden is old, not senile. I would think arresting the governor is probably the single biggest win condition Abbot has in all of this, people gaming out crazy stuff like him shutting off the grid nonwithstanding. If he gets arrested, he has an incredibly clear shot at becoming president before 2032. Unlike Trump, Abbot hasn't actually done things that would make charges against him stick, and would be able to beat the drum of political persecution/abuse of power far more effectively.

You can't become President if you're in ADX Florence awaiting execution on a treason conviction.

Unlike Trump, Abbot hasn't actually done things that would make charges against him stick

It's just the other way around. Trump has done nothing but engage in lawfare and run his mouth, and the Democrats have largely successfully memed it into insurrection. If Abbott defies Federal authority with force -- and he's come close but hasn't yet -- he actually has committed insurrection.

As a Texan who has been a lifelong democrat voter, arresting and charging Abbot with treason over this would force me to swallow my dislike and vote straight ticket republican for a decade until he gets pardoned. I tend to thing I'm not alone in this, and that Biden's pollsters know it. Is Abbot in the wrong? Yeah, probably. But arresting a sitting governor who is toeing the line of the letter of the law is not the appropriate escalation for this. Charging him with treason is beyond the pale. It's a huge escalation and a violation of the principles that allow us to maintain a civil society. We didn't execute governors when they were fighting for segregation, and I really doubt we're about to start now. I'm already iffy on what's going on with Trump, and he did blatantly attempt to abuse his authority to convince his subordinates to subvert state certifications.

The appropriate escalation here is judicial and administrative remedies, what Biden is currently pursuing. It might be slow and cumbersome, but it avoids tearing our society apart, which is the whole reason we have a federal government in the first place.

As a Texan who has been a lifelong democrat voter, arresting and charging Abbot with treason over this would force me to swallow my dislike and vote straight ticket republican for a decade until he gets pardoned.

So? Even if your state retains electoral votes rather than being involved in a mini-Reconstruction, Texas was Red anyway.

But arresting a sitting governor who is toeing the line of the letter of the law is not the appropriate escalation for this. Charging him with treason is beyond the pale.

The Democrats have already demonstrated they're willing to go beyond the pale.

I'm already iffy on what's going on with Trump, and he did blatantly attempt to abuse his authority to convince his subordinates to subvert state certifications.

Which is a lot LESS than ordering troops to defy Federal authority, which is just about where we are.

We didn't execute governors when they were fighting for segregation

"We" (Kennedy) Federalized the Alabama national guard and sent in the 101st Airborne, and George Wallace backed down. If he hadn't, he might well have been executed.

Democratic federal authority hangs by a thread atm and they don't currently have anywhere near the mandate Kennedy did when putting down segregationists. If Biden arrests Abbot, my current read of the situation is he would basically be certain to lose the presidency as a result. You might disagree on how the votes shake out, but it's pretty clear Abbot thinks the same. It's precisely because Biden is extremely unpopular and this is an election year that he's being so bold.

Which is a lot LESS than ordering troops to defy Federal authority, which is just about where we are.

Abbot is very carefully not doing that. The recent court ruling does not forbid Abbot from continuing to place razor wire blockades.

Personally, I think that the way this ends is with Biden doing nothing substantial until he gets an actual court victory or wins the election, and Abbot then backing down.

If border patrol and the national guard are already siding with Texas what makes you think the 101st would side with the globalists?

When push comes to shove, Red Tribe follows the chain of command.

That's definitionally not an offramp.

Sure it is. Abbott is arrested, Dan Patrick orders the Texas National Guard to stand down on threat of being arrested himself, Abbott is brought to DC for trial for insurrection, duly convicted, and sent to Federal prison. ADX Florence if the Democrats are feeling super-feisty and claim he presents an escape risk.

Most likely Abbott will back down, but Biden has carte blanche here.

Dan Patrick

And

more conciliatory than Abbott

Not descriptors that go together.

Yeah, kind of like how Omaha Beach was an offramp,I get it.

"Offramp covered by machine-gun enfilade" has a certain ring to it.

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