Crisis in Texas

I was thinking about Wilmer McLean while reading about the escalating stand off between Texas and the United States government at Eagle Pass, Texas, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The decision made clear that the state of Texas does not have the lawful authority to occupy the international border and refuse access to U.S. Border Patrol.

There is a great deal of loose talk about civil war in America, and there has been for some time. In fact, there will be a movie imagining the future conflict released later this year called “Civil War.” Here’s the trailer for it:

It seems that civil war is never far from the imaginations of some Americans. Here is a story of 21st century Americans taking time out of their busy schedules to fetishize the Confederacy by wearing the uniform of the slave republic, while cheering for the South. Of course, the cause of the war was singular — slavery — but that seems to matter little, as does the deaths of 850,000 people. It may be lost on millions of Americans, but when Nazi Germany needed a foundational basis for laws that would strip human beings of citizenship and establish a legal basis for their subjugation, they turned to the American South for inspiration.  It may also be lost on millions of Americans that nearly 200,000 Black men wore the blue uniform of the US Army during the Civil War. Black men and white officers serving with them were summarily executed by the Confederate Army during the war, which was filled with racial atrocities by units that killed with the same glee as Einsatzgruppen killers in Europe 80 years later.

Here are the words of Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, making clear that the cause was slavery. It is referred to as the “Cornerstone” speech:

The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions-African slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the “rock upon which the old Union would split.” He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it-when the “storm came and the wind blew, it fell.”

Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. [Applause.] This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It is so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind; from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is, forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics: their conclusions are right if their premises are. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights, with the white man…. I recollect once of having heard a gentleman from one of the Northern States, of great power and ability, announce in the House of Representatives, with imposing effect, that we of the South would be compelled, ultimately, to yield upon this subject of slavery; that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics, as it was in physics or mechanics. That the principle would ultimately prevail. That we, in maintaining slavery as it exists with us, were warring against a principle-a principle founded in nature, the principle of the equality of man. The reply I made to him was, that upon his own grounds we should succeed, and that he and his associates in their crusade against our institutions would ultimately fail. The truth announced, that it was as impossible to war successfully against a principle in politics as well as in physics and mechanics, I admitted, but told him it was he and those acting with him who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal.

In the conflict thus far, success has been on our side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world.

As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are, and ever have been, in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo-it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy. It was so with Harvey, and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now, they are universally acknowledged. May we not therefore look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first Government ever instituted upon principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many Governments have been founded upon the principles of certain classes; but the classes thus enslaved, were of the same race, and in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature’s laws. The negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite-then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is the best, not only for the superior but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances or to question them. For His own purposes He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made “one star to differ from another in glory.”

The great objects of humanity are best attained, when conformed to his laws and degrees, in the formation of Governments as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders “is become the chief stone of the corner” in our new edifice.

Of course, the trigger for the war was the attack on Fort Sumter and the United States Army by the state of South Carolina on April 12-13, 1861. What followed was the war that everyone involved thought would be very brief. It happened in Manassas, Virginia, and all of Washington society travelled to watch it as a social event. The armies met
on the property around Mr. McLean’s farm. After a spasm of bloodshed that shocked the spectators, the defeated Union Army straggled to Washington, DC. The Confederacy had won its first battle, and Wilmer McClean uprooted his family, and moved to a quiet corner of southwestern Virginia, far from the war’s front lines.

Every white supremacist in the country who venerates the defeated slave republic, celebrates the lost cause and has fantasies about a 21st century civil war, has imagined how it will start. Some of those malignant fantasies manifested as books, like the racist “Turner Diaries” that inspired Timothy McVeigh’s act of mass murder. Every 21st century confederate with dreams of concentration camps, mass deportations, and lusts for retribution against dissent and punishment for political opponents is tuned into what is happening in Eagle Pass, Texas. Are you?

Did you know about the “Army of God,” which is forming and heading to the border, believing the end times are nigh? By the way, did you know that the English translation of Hezbollah is “Army of God?”

Did you know that the governor of Oklahoma speculated about the moment when Texans and Americans will point weapons at one another? Did you know that he was imagining the moment when Texas National Guard, joined by Oklahoma National Guard, would level weapons at federal officers under orders from Governor Greg Abbott? Did you know that he talked about the violence in exactly the same manner that 19th century secessionists did?

Did you know that 25 other MAGA/GOP governors are jumping on board the bandwagon? Did you know that the governor of Idaho is flirting with the idea of deploying his National Guard to Texas in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court?

How many more MAGA/GOP governors are salivating to take part in this performance theater, and gain Trump’s favor?

Does the Biden White House have any appreciation whatsoever about what is happening, and where this is going?

There is an old saying that has enormous import at this early stage, though it is completely obvious. It is difficult to actualize in any environment where consensus, caution, bureaucracy and thick bubbles of insularity are at play. The saying is an oldie, but a goodie: “nip it in the bud.”

What happens when federal and red state National Guards square off and raise weapons at one another?

What happens when the first shot is fired?

President Biden must act decisively in this moment against the accumulation of bad faith and extremism that has accumulated without response under the political, moral and un-American corruption of men like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton. This issue cannot be ignored or neglected. It should be perfectly clear by now that Donald Trump is cheering for the chaos because it is an element of his demagoguery. He is running to restore order out of the madness he has created — just like Adolf Hitler succeeded in doing between 1928 and 1932 Germany.

Soon, heavily armed trucker convoys will arrive in Eagle Pass. President Biden needs to get control of this situation ASAP before it becomes his version of the Iranian hostage crisis. There should be no doubt about this issue to destroy his candidacy. It is growing worse by the hour, and now the extremists are making their move. This is a cancer that should not be allowed to metastasize.

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