Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.
Texas and the Biden administration are at loggerheads, and now we have 25 governors who are saying, “Governor Greg Abbott's fight to secure the border is constitutional, and we support Texas.” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said, "If President Biden won't defend us, states will have to defend themselves. Arkansas stands with Texas." Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) likewise said, "The Biden administration continues to refuse to secure the border. Virginia supports Abbott and Texas' constitutional right to defend itself."
Twenty-five states support Texas. Twenty-five through their words or their silence do not. This is a constitutional crisis that we haven’t had since the 1860s.
What Greg Abbott is doing is absolutely right. We use the tools that the Constitution has given us. We don't compromise. We don't back down.
Now, there are always crazy people. We have people on the left who want violence, and we have those who claim to be on the right who want violence. They want another civil war. They say, "We could Balkanize the country!" Have you been to the Balkans? You don't want to do that. That’s foolish.
Then there are the people in the middle. They are peaceful, but they’re also angry. They’re saying, “Someone must do something. We have to stand up.” That is what Abbott has done, and he has done it the right way. He's done it with Ken Paxton, one of the best attorneys general in the country. They know the Constitution inside and out, and they are taking the constitutional route.
Keep the republic together
Remember when our founding fathers said that governments are “instituted among men" to protect these rights, and when a government becomes hostile to those rights, it’s the right of the people to “throw off such government” and form a new government? A lot of people are calling for that right now.
Let’s think for a moment.
First, let’s remember that the new government must be more likely to protect those rights than the one you currently have. Sorry, leftists, you would be in violation, just like the South was in violation in the 1860s. At the time of the Civil War, our government hadn’t been protecting everybody's rights as it should have. But when the South wanted to abolish the current government to increase slavery, to deprive more people of more rights, when we should have been protecting the rights of those people, we said, “No. That is not a legitimate government.”
This is a constitutional crisis that we haven’t had since the 1860s.
Second, remember when Abraham Lincoln came in, he said the most important thing is to save the Union. Why? Because a house divided against itself cannot stand. We know that to be true. So the most important thing we need to do is hold the republic together. We must hold the republic together. But realize that Lincoln was also right in predicting that if we were ever to fall, the threat would come from the inside. The threat is among us. The threat is from the system.
Constitutional rights and wrongs
America’s founders gave us all kinds of tools we can use to fight against this threat for the sake of our republic.
Greg Abbott’s decision to call out the National Guard to address the border crisis was clearly constitutional. We are under an invasion. The federal government is not fulfilling its duty. We should celebrate that we have the constitutional ability to defend ourselves when the federal government fails to do so. The founders foresaw this.
Some Democrats have come out and said that Joe Biden must nationalize the National Guard, which would give control to the president and not to the governor. Technically, Biden does have that ability, which might also involve deploying federal troops to the border to take charge. People are afraid this could go south. I don't think our National Guard would fire on federal troops. They wouldn't. Now, somebody could be stupid. The Boston Massacre started with a single shot fired in anger.
Greg Abbott’s decision to call out the National Guard to address the border crisis was clearly constitutional.
But I do not believe that the Texas National Guard would turn on Texas with the Constitution being so clear. I don't think Greg Abbott wants that. I don't think anyone else wants that. What Texas does want is a challenge in the Supreme Court. “We disagree. Now the government has taken extra steps to harm Texas, and we’re just following the Constitution. Who is right?"
The November election matters
We also have something exciting happening right now: an election in November. We need to watch how all of this plays out. If you have “checked out” and you’re not paying attention because you don’t want to be part of that system, then how are you going to complain? We have a duty to make sure this election is as safe as possible.
This is vital. Even if there was a chance the founding fathers could have voted King George III out without overthrowing the government — which they couldn't have, but stick with me. If the American colonists had had proper representation, they would have had recourse to the ballot and might not have needed the bullet. If an election was happening in November 1776, they might have been pessimistic about their chances, but they wouldn’t have written the Declaration of Independence in July.
So let's stop throwing around the idea of civil war. Civil war is very bad idea, and I think everybody agrees.
What should we do? What Greg Abbott is doing is absolutely right. We use the tools that the Constitution has given us. We don't compromise. We don't back down.
