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You can't become President if you're in ADX Florence awaiting execution on a treason conviction.
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.
So? Even if your state retains electoral votes rather than being involved in a mini-Reconstruction, Texas was Red anyway.
The Democrats have already demonstrated they're willing to go beyond the pale.
Which is a lot LESS than ordering troops to defy Federal authority, which is just about where we are.
"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.
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.
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