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Thursday, February 01, 2024

Border Derangement Syndrome threatens to plunge the US into fascism -- part 1 of 2

It's totally bonkers that #NeverWasMyPresident Donald Trump could actually win the 2024 presidential election based on the problems at the United States/Mexico border, thus plunging the US headlong into a deep and toxic well of fascism from which it may never emerge. But these are crazy times, and Trump and the American reich's fearmongering over the border has, if the polls are any indication, gotten to far too many voters.

Fueled by Trump's Hitlerian declarations about immigrants "poisoning the blood of our country," as well as the republican histrionics over fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking, and the endless lies about non-citizens illegally voting and stealing government benefits and taking all of the good jobs away from hard-working Muricans, Border Derangement Syndrome -- let's just call it BDS -- apparently has hundreds of thousands of people in its grip. It has them believing that the crisis at the Southern border is the gravest issue facing America today and that unless something radical is done immediately, if not sooner, we simply will not survive as a nation.

Before I go any further, let me clarify that I do not deny that there are significant problems at the Southern border, and that the United States' immigration system is badly broken and needs fixing. These things have been true for many years, through numerous administrations. Nor, I should add, is it deranged, or racist, or xenophobic to be genuinely concerned about border security, as well as about how America can actually accommodate masses of new immigrants when we're already faced with precarious social safety nets for citizens, not to mention a growing crisis in affordable housing that is putting our most vulnerable citizens at risk for homelessness. These are all real problems and they need serious solutions.

While the complexities of mending the country's border/immigration issues, as well as its housing and safety-net crises, are far beyond the scope of this blog, and I won't pretend otherwise, there is one thing I can say without reservation, and without needing to be an expert on the issues: To declare that the influx of desperate migrants constitutes an "invasion" that poses a true existential threat to the US -- and even worse, to believe that the demented former president and his cruel and shameless toadies can and will fix it all -- is Border Derangement Syndrome in a nutshell, with the emphasis, I'm not at all sorry to say, on "nut."

Two truths that should be self-evident
There are two glaring points that the victims and spreaders of BDS seem to be overlooking, either deliberately or otherwise.

Point 1. The republican party by and large has demonstrated repeatedly that, like their undisputed leader Trump, they really do not want to do anything to mitigate, much less solve, the border crisis -- at least not until after the general election in November, and even that depends upon who wins the presidency. If Biden wins, the stalemating and obstruction and sabotaging of bipartisan immigration reform efforts are almost certain to continue. For now, as far as the repubs are concerned, the more border disorder there is, the bigger the headache for Biden and the Democrats, and the better the chances are that the repubs' twice-impeached, multiple-criminally indicted, Adderall-addled, egregiously unfit leader will be restored to the throne, perhaps indefinitely.

The situation is so blatant that even some leading republicans are acknowledging that Trump and both House and Senate republicans are not operating in good faith regarding the border crisis (duh). In a January 29, 2024 article The New Republic cited a couple of recent Sunday morning talk show appearances by republican Senator James Lankford, who is leading negotiations over the bipartisan border security bill that has been in the news. Lankford was pretty forthright about the big reasons that so many repubs, under the leadership of Trump, are trying to sabotage this bill that, while not perfect, would do a hell of a lot to address the crisis.

The New Republic author, Greg Sargent, put two and two together from Lankford's statements and concluded that the republicans' objections are not just based on the fact that a deal now would likely help Biden, but also on the fact that a compromise bill might prevent Trump and his reincarnated Nazi monster Stephen Miller from perpetrating a much harsher bill should Trump win in 2024.

I think it’s no accident that Trump and MAGA are trying to sink this deal even as Trump and Miller are loudly advertising plans for an extraordinarily cruel and draconian second-term crackdown. This includes the mass removals of millions of undocumented immigrants settled here, commencing on Day One; and dramatically scaled-up “camps” to detain enormous numbers of asylum-seekers, who would be subject to appalling new limits that would go further than the GOP bill does. Trump is openly flaunting this agenda’s white nationalist aspirations.

The spectacle of border disorder along with Congress doing nothing in response is the essential combination that Trump, Miller, and MAGA Republicans need. Images of serious destabilization being met with parliamentary sclerosis might create the opening for them to persuade swing voters—especially those who aren’t ideologically opposed to immigration—to accept maximal ethnonationalist savagery, packaged as “border security,” as the only “solution” that will “work.”

At least that’s the dream that fires up the fevered MAGA imagination. It’s what Trump really means by saying, “I’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.” If a bipartisan deal passes and it persuades swing voters that the border is being stabilized without excessive anti-immigrant cruelty, that opportunity could vanish.

With the overwhelming majority of the republican "leadership" it's not just party over country anymore; it's Trump over country and over everything that is good and decent and noble about the American experiment.

Point 2. The reich-wing political "leaders," media figures, influencers, and random keyboard warriors who are screaming the loudest to "close the border" and deport every single "illegal" and take other radical actions -- supposedly in the name of protecting the security and integrity of the United States of America -- are the very ones who are also doing their damnedest to destroy American democracy and crap all over the Constitution in order to advance their Christofascist agendas and restore their beloved Mango Mussolini to power.

Some of them, especially in Texas, are even secessionists, many are salivating over the prospect of another genuine civil war, some are just plain stupid (or cognitively unsophisticated, if you prefer), and some are crass grifters taking advantage of gullible people's fears -- but if these folks are patriotic Americans who cherish the United States Constitution and are genuinely trying to help save the country from enemies both foreign and domestic, then my dog Dobby has a PhD in nuclear physics. (His actual PhD is in cuteness, but that's another topic.)

The gop impeachment "investigation" of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas is worse than shameful
Not content with their endless and groundless attacks on President Biden regarding the border (and everything else related to his presidency), House republicans are aggressively pursuing impeachment of Biden's Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. Their Trumped-up list of "high crimes and misdemeanors" doesn't actually include any real crimes or misdemeanors, but they're not letting that stop them.

In a January 31, 2024 opinion piece on MSNBC, Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) wrote about the above-and-beyond-cynical efforts to impeach Secretary Mayorkas.

On Tuesday, House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee completed their rushed, baseless and legally flawed impeachment “investigation” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for trumped-up, never-used charges relating to the secretary’s efforts to secure our southern border. The irony here, of course, is that the ones who have failed to secure the southern border are, in fact, those same Republicans, operating at the behest of Donald Trump. 

As one senior congressional aide recently put it: “It’s very clear that a large group of Republicans in the Senate and the House no longer want to do border security. … Trump wouldn’t have his issue to run on. That’s what’s going on here: They don’t want to give up that issue.”

Keep in mind, that aide who so succinctly summed up the ongoing border legislation negotiations is a Republican, not a Democrat. 

Rep. Goldman continued:

Even within its limited executive authority, the Biden administration has taken several actions to address the situation at the border by streamlining the asylum process while expediting eligibility decisions, preventing unlawful entry between ports of entry and reducing the pressure on the system by allowing people from specific countries suffering from acute humanitarian problems to gain lawful access under certain limiting conditions. 

In response to these efforts, Republican attorneys general around the country sued the Biden administration to prevent the implementation of these policy changes designed to stop the unlawful entry of migrants across the southern border and stem the flow of migrants seeking asylum.

Think about that: The Republicans are working to create and perpetuate the very problems upon which they are basing their impeachment effort of Mayorkas. 

Here is a link to the House minority staff report on the republicans' extraordinary abuse of power in going forward with the sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas.

In short, the Mayorkas impeachment project is just another performative distraction -- not to mention a serious obstruction -- to try to keep American voters focused on Biden's supposed ineffectiveness and awfulness, while keeping the focus off of Trump's genuine awfulness, including some of the truly cruel and stupid border "solutions" he has suggested. Regarding the latter, here's a good summary from California Representative Robert Garcia:

So let's review the majority’s border ideas, that they've actually presented. Here they are:

Donald Trump actually has said that he wants to build alligator moats along the border. That's one of his incredible ideas.

Another idea that Donald Trump has promoted is he actually wants to electrify the border fence, and maybe even put some spikes on the border. That's another Donald Trump and MAGA-majority border idea.

Another idea, which I'm not sure how well it would go, is he wants to actually bomb northern Mexico with missiles. That's another Trump idea.

And finally, I think one of the ones that I think is the most grotesque, is suggestions that instead we should maybe just shoot migrants in the legs as they cross the border. So once again, the Donald Trump and MAGA plan is alligator moats, bombing northern Mexico, shooting migrants in the legs, and electrifying the fence, and putting spikes on them. That is the Donald Trump border plan.

And so again, we are here today with these horrific ideas being presented constantly by the former president. This is all about trying to get Donald Trump reelected. Donald Trump himself is saying he wants no solutions this year out of the Congress. And Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden continue to offer solutions every day and are ready to actually talk about real immigration and border solutions in this country.

That pretty well sums it up. Of course, Trump couldn't continue to exert his evil influence on border problems and other issues if he didn't have a hell of a lot of help and support, not only from the US House and Senate, but also from red state "leaders."

The Tex-surrection is well underway, and it's as dangerous as it is stupid
Over the past few years I have made no secret of my disgust and contempt for the governor of my state of Texas, Greg Abbott (aka Guv'ner Greg Assbutt on this blog). But his ultra-right politics and his cynically performative political stunts are becoming increasingly dangerous. Now he is threatening a genuine civil war, and it seems that too few media outlets are alarmed about this issue. The Daily Kos, in a January 30, 2024 piece by staff member Mark Sumner, summed it up clearly.

Texas made it clear on Monday that it intended to continue adding razor wire along the southern border, despite the tragic drownings of children and a Supreme Court ruling that allowed federal agents to cut or remove these barriers.

That Supreme Court ruling overturned a decision by the highly conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals which blocked Border Patrol agents from removing the razor wire. However, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is now arguing that because the Supreme Court ruling only sent the decision back to the 5th Circuit and didn’t explicitly state rules for what happens next, “There was no opinion about anything–about razor wire, what Texas is doing or anything like that.”

MAGA Republicans are celebrating Abbott’s standoff with the federal government and calling on Texas to “Hold the line,” which is bringing on concerns about a constitutional crisis. The most extreme are calling for Texas to secede and initial a second Civil War. 

And somehow, the national media doesn’t feel like this is a story.

I have to agree: it should be a much, much bigger story than it is, especially since Guv'ner Assbutt's stunts have apparently given Putin and his thugs a major hard-on. Sumner continued:

...The standoff has also generated excitement in Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s chief deputy has been calling on Texas to get that civil war going.

“Establishing a People's Republic of Texas is getting more and more real,” tweeted Dmitry Medvedev. Russia is reportedly using its propaganda machine to push hard on this issue, seizing on a dispute between the federal government and Texas as a means of distracting the U.S. from the war in Ukraine.

Despite all this, the story has generated exactly zero articles in The New York Times and scant attention anywhere else in the national media. 

The national press is allowing Republicans to stoke their fabricated border crisis—right down to threats of civil war—even while those same Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine a solution to issues at the border. 

For some less prominent news outlets it certainly is a big story, with, for example, indie journalist Judd Legum's excellent Popular Info calling it like it is. From January 29, 2024:

Texas' seizure of Shelby Park and refusal to allow federal officials access have created an extremely dangerous situation. On January 12, three migrants — a woman and two children — drowned in the Rio Grande near the park. When Border Patrol agents went to Shelby Park to address the situation and help other migrants in distress, guardsmen from the Texas National Guard refused to let them enter, saying "they had been ordered not to allow Border Patrol access to the park."

The legal battle between Texas and the federal government over Shelby Park began when Texas sued the federal government for cutting and removing some of the razor wire it installed along the Rio Grande. Border Patrol argued that the razor wire was putting its agents and migrants legally entitled to claim asylum at risk. Texas argued that the federal government was illegally destroying its property. The state eventually won an injunction from the Fifth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, prohibiting the federal government from disturbing Texas' razor wire. The federal government, however, appealed to the Supreme Court. On January 22, in a brief order, the Supreme Court sided with the federal government and lifted the injunction. 

Texas' response to the Supreme Court order has been alarming. Abbott issued a statement stating that "[t]he federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States." Compact theory was championed by John C. Calhoun, one of the staunchest defenders of slavery. It essentially views states as "independent sovereigns" that are free to reject federal authority. It was used to justify the "nullification" of federal laws and, ultimately, secession from the union by Southern states. 

As law professor Steven Vladeck notes, the specific constitutional argument Abbott is advancing makes even less sense...

Giving credit where credit is due, some of the mainstream outlets have at least spoken out against Guv'ner Assbutt's actions in general. The link in the last paragraph of the above quotation leads to an opinion piece about Abbott's misunderstanding (or deliberate misinterpretation) of the Constitution. The piece was published in Texas' largest newspaper, The Houston Chronicle. (Here's that link again.)

In addition, the editorial board of the Chronicle had this to say about Abbott's political stunts:

Thumbs down: Gov. Greg Abbott is approaching folk hero status in some corners for his refusal to follow a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the federal government to take down razor wire along the border. Abbott, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, apparently thinks he knows better than the highest court in the nation what the U.S. Constitution says. Indeed, he’s ordering even more of the barbed deterrent strung up to keep migrants, including families with children, from entering the U.S. In a statement, Abbott made a convoluted constitutional argument that basically claims self-defense. That’s right, the governor of a state that has maimed migrants with razor wire, deprived them of water in the summer and left to them to drown in the river is arguing self-defense. What a man. What a maverick. He’ll earn a place in the history books right next to Gov. George Wallace in the schoolhouse door, promising to block integration in defiance of the Supreme Court’s ban on school segregation. We can think of better legacies for a man who has the brains and education to know better.

Alas, brains and education don't equal a moral compass or anything resembling compassion, as Guv'ner Assbutt has demonstrated time and time again in the years since he has been in office -- not only on border issues but also on abortion rights and other social issues.

Texit, schmexit
Regarding the matter of Texas seceding and becoming a republic unto itself (the Republic Of Texas, or ROT), not only is that illegal but it would also make the problem of illegal immigration much worse, as well as giving rise to a host of other complications that might have even the true-red MAGAts revolting (okay, I know, they already are revolting, but you know what I mean). In a February 19, 2024 opinion piece on the Houston Press site, Jef Rouner, one of my favorite journalists, threw a little bit of reality into the secessionists' fantasy.

Now, Texas loves to talk about secession almost as much as it loves to tell other states their chili sucks. There has never been a moment in my life when someone in the state wasn’t advocating leaving the union and utterly lying about the legal right to do so. These days they call it Texit, which just goes to show you how little people know about the difference between the European Union and the United States...

...Let’s say that Texas actually does secede, either from a public vote or by the order of the state government. That action is illegal, and the United States would have to use military force to stop it. Texas contains a great deal of the nation’s space infrastructure, 15 active military bases, and one of the most important ports. There is no scenario where the federal government lets any of that go.

Speaking of ports, the state does not have a navy. I know it’s the dream of every gun-totin’ Texan that we could stand off the entire U.S. Army with a few rifles and an overinflated sense of our own toughness, but the only weaponized thing we have that floats is our bullshit.

Texans couldn’t even organize a pro-Trump boat parade on Lake Travis without sinking a flotilla to the bottom. We are not going to be able to stand up to a navy that has a quarter of the world’s aircraft carriers. The U.S. doesn't even have to fire a shot. Simply blockading the Gulf of Mexico would cripple Texas within a matter of weeks.

On top of that, Texas would suddenly be on the hook to handle the entire border infrastructure. The current Biden proposal for money to spend on the southern border is $25 billion, about one-sixth of Texas’s entire yearly budget.

Maybe the state could handle that, but remember that secession would more than quadruple the total Texas border since it would now include New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Much of that border is in barren, desolate areas without any fencing at all. Trying to secure it while presumably holding off the hostile forces of the largest army in the world would crater the Texas economy so hard the dinosaur fossils would wake up and declare it “a bit much.”

Don’t forget that the whole time this is happening, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are gone. Millions of Texas will lose income, so spending goes down. We’ve already established international trade will sink thanks to the naval blockade. Within a few months of secession Texas would be too poor to afford drugs that would even let us hallucinate that we were handling illegal immigration better than the federal government...

Well said, Jef.

If the US does indeed plummet into that deep well of fascism I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it will be due in no small part to the efforts of Greg Assbutt and other republican governors. We gotta vote them out of office, and we gotta outvote that big portion of the electorate who is not only suffering from Border Derangement Syndrome, but from the much larger, more intractable, and more dangerous problem of Trumpism.

I've gone on more than long enough for now, so I'll conclude my profoundly superficial exploration of BDS in my next post.

Update on bipartisan border bill, February 5, 2024

This post has been amended and updated several times since its initial publication on February 1, 2024.

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