The War Against the States

For decades, Republicans declared their party the champion of "states' rights." Their argument reflected claims that the "true cause" of the American Civil War was not slavery, but the federal government's refusal to honor the inviolable rights of individual sovereign states.

Just one year ago, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asserted the right to use the Texas National Guard to supersede federal law.

Operating outside [the federal] chain of command, Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to deploy razor wire as a gruesome “deterrent” to migrant crossings, and these troops have refused to allow the Biden administration to remove the razor wire. While states can have their own laws on many things in the American federal system, federal supremacy in immigration and border enforcement is a long-established precedent.

But on Sunday, Abbott gleefully cheered for the use of those same Texas guardsmen to invade another state, over the express orders of that state's governor, to usurp the law enforcement role explicitly belonging to the state that was home to Abraham Lincoln.

If there was ever better evidence that "states' rights" was only a smokescreen used by Republicans in their defense of racism and misogyny, it's difficult to think of what it may be.

So long as the federal government was serving the task of defending the innate human rights of all people, Republicans hid behind their states' rights cloak. When the federal government went to work attacking people of color and anyone who would defend them, Republicans flat-out begged to be federalized.

This is a unique moment in history for racists, bigots, and every brand of jackbooted thug ready to stomp out the flames of democracy. They see this as their opportunity, perhaps their only opportunity, to roll back a century of progress in human rights, civil rights, and women's rights. And they are determined not to squander this chance to beat the shit out of the American dream.

Abbott's declaration of support for sending Texas forces into Illinois is part of a plan. For weeks, ICE has been deliberately instigating violence around its Broadview facility. It has increased unrest with raids carried out across the city. Those raids have repeatedly targeted American citizens as well as immigrants legally in the United States. As with other ICE raids, they have involved no warrants, no warnings, and massive mistreatment of those in the area.

The largest of these raids involved a military helicopter and dozens of armored vehicles in a violent assault against unarmed civilians.

At around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, armed federal agents rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of a five-storey residential apartment in the South Shore of Chicago. The agents worked their way through the building, kicking down doors and throwing flash bang grenades, rounding up adults and screaming children alike, detaining them in zip-ties and arresting dozens, according to witnesses and local reporting.

It's all part of what the White House named "Operation Midway Blitz," and it's clear that the purpose isn't to find criminal illegal immigrants. The purpose of this operation is to cause damage, infuriate citizens, and generate an excuse for more violence on the part of ICE and any federal troops sent to the city.

Over the weekend, Trump also attempted to federalize the California National Guard and send them to Portland. This order was in direct defiance of a federal judge's ruling that the Department of Justice had demonstrated no need for troops to be deployed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared that he will sue to prevent Trump from federalizing these troops.

As of Monday morning, the State of Illinois has filed suit to block the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. It's hard to say anything more clearly than the opening words of that suit

The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor. To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to spread ridiculous claims about Portland, Chicago, and other cities in states with Democratic governors. Those claims are being repeated and amplified by Trumpist news outlets and social media.

This is all deliberate provocation. Trump is determined to create a dispute with both state officials and federal judges. At the same time, he's using ICE to create scenes of apparent violent protest — even if all the violence is against the protestors. The media is helping out by replaying scenes of burning cars or tussles with police that are years out of date and unrelated to anything happening now.

And there's no doubt where all of this is heading: A declaration of martial law.

Trump has been aching to cast off the last limits of civil society since at least 2020 when he schemed about using the military to hold onto the White House after losing the election.

... a heated Oval Office meeting Friday in which Trump heard arguments about invoking martial law to stay in office had some Trump officials sounding the alarm to the press. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pardoned former national security adviser, discussed the martial law plan on right-wing television network Newsmax last week and was invited to the White House Friday.

With Trump at the helm, the party that hid racism and misogyny behind “states’ rights” for decades now has control of every branch of the federal government. They’re waging war on states in the name of racism and misogyny and laughing at the whole idea of states’ rights.

Donald Trump is one scrawl away from erasing the whole idea of state sovereignty, and Republicans are cheering him on.

Update