Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
In blue cities across America—Portland, Oregon, especially—often violent protesters now seek to surround ICE facilities to stop federal officers from fulfilling their assigned and legal duties of arresting illegal aliens.
Some 10 million or more illegal aliens were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Biden years—illegally and thus without criminal or health checks.
Neither Antifa nor liberal urban America objected to such a flagrant disregard for the law. But both are now as intent on obstructing the legal enforcement of the law as they were earlier in favor of its illegal non-enforcement.
Much less did they care about the consequences of sending millions of foreign nationals into cities and counties where they swamped social services, spiked crime, and flooded emergency rooms and schools.
ICE has repeatedly presented data that show in its first rounds of deportations, it is concentrating on removing either criminal illegal aliens or those who have already been processed with deportation orders, somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of all current apprehensions.
No matter.
Left-wing protesters are swarming ICE headquarters in Portland to violently oppose all deportations, even those of known criminals and those who have already exhausted efforts to remain here illegally.
Why? The Democratic Party apparat knows that the public wants both secure borders and deportations of illegal aliens. Indeed, in part, it lost an election by its open-borders advocacy.
But Democrat officials feel that if street thugs like Antifa can surround and besiege ICE facilities in Portland, Oregon, then deportations will stop. Then, a de facto amnesty will follow for millions who entered the U.S. illegally—and will soon become Democratic constituents.
As a result, they do not fully enforce the law when thugs attack federal law enforcement. Antifa and its spin-off groups favor the night, when they try to block all entries and exits of ICE vehicles and personnel, and can commit their violence with greater anonymity.
The masked rioters assault anyone in their way. They count on exemption from punishment for committing violence against federal officers through the goodwill or indifference of kindred local and state officials who hate the Trump administration more than they respect the law. An Orwellian scenario follows in which federal officers are attacked by Antifa, which in turn counts on the non-intervention of local police.
Summed up: the city of Portland’s armed officers are in a de facto proxy war with their federal counterparts—in our version of something out of 1860, on the eve of a real civil war.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek feel their constituents want open borders and thus should have the right in their own city and state to do as they please—and federal law be damned.
But by doing so, both the Democrat Party officialdom and the street armies of Antifa are on the proverbial wrong side of history.
America for almost 200 years has already decided, in formal law and court rulings, that no local or state entity can disrupt the enforcement of federal laws or usurp Washington’s powers. To do so with impunity would unravel the American nation in short order.
We know that from our own violent history. Andrew Jackson, in 1832, like Trump, threatened to send troops to stop South Carolina’s nullification of federal tariff laws.
America fought a Civil War over Confederate states’ efforts to ignore federal law and confiscate or occupy federal property within their state jurisdictions.
As late as 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace thought he could nullify federal law by using his state guard to deny black students’ enrollment in the University of Alabama—until the Kennedy administration federalized all state troopers and sent in additional federal troops.
So what we are witnessing in Portland—and elsewhere—is a neo-Confederate attempt to supersede federal law and, in reactionary fashion, invoke states’ and cities’ rights.
Oregon and Portland believe that they are more moral than the federal government and thus have a natural right to side with street mobs by both not enforcing their own laws against Antifa violence and ignoring the innate civil rights of ICE personnel.
The latter are denied freedom of movement, association, and the ability to fulfill their job duties by what has turned out to be a near city-sanctioned siege of their facilities.
The Democrats are fine with all this. They think the violence against ICE will be portrayed daily as general chaos by their allied media. Thus, the proverbial people who keep clear of the siege and its detritus will simply want all the bother to go away—and supposedly blame those enforcing, not breaking, the law. In sum, the Democratic Party is the official face of the left. Antifa provides the street shock troops, and the media serves as its propaganda arm.
So, the left-wing logic is to allow the violence and siege to continue in a “safe space” for Antifa. A strapped ICE will supposedly eventually shut down operations and move on. And any violence that occurs can be chalked up to Trump’s federal government “baiting” Portlanders.
The reigning moralistic assumption is that ceding territory to terrorists, not enforcing local and state laws, and nullifying federal statutes are all small prices to pay for the larger projection of chaos and violence that can be blamed on Trump.
Such thinking entails utter indifference to any Portlanders who live near the siege and are nightly subjected to constant disruptions, harassment, and occasional violence. Do these law-abiding residents have fewer civil rights than the lawbreaking armies of the night?
In contrast, the use of federal troops to stop the siege of ICE facilities will remind the violent protesters of the left that their neo-Confederate tactics will not work, but instead subject them to arrest and federal indictments.
Bringing in federal forces to uphold the law will also protect the rights of ICE personnel and neighborhood residents to live in peace and security and have their constitutional protections secured. Not all American citizens are Portlanders, but all Portland citizens are Americans.
In other words, both Antifa and the appeasing Oregon officials are our new neo-Confederate secessionists. They feel that their states are now autonomous entities that are still entitled to federal money but not obligated to follow federal laws.
Portland also reminds us of the recent utter incoherence of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. On the one hand, she pleads for federal dollars to restore her city’s burned-out neighborhoods due to her own incompetence and neglect, while on the other hand actively obstructs the federal government from enforcing immigration laws in her own city.
For a party that has been quick to shout “insurrection,” it is ironic that Democrats and their useful, though violent, Antifa insurrectionists are in rebellion against the federal government and its agents.
It is hard to know which is worse—the Antifa thug who nightly tries to injure a federal officer, or the sanctimonious neo-Confederate official who empowers him to keep trying?
If you want to break up protesters, the best way is to use high pressure water cannons and paint guns with hard to remove paint balls.
This situation is only lends more support to splitting the state into two states. Why should people of good conscience and common sense support this ongoing madness in Portland? Maybe they will drop into the Pacific in the Cascadian event at some future date.
Antifa would stay out of ice business if ice would just shoot everyone of them bastards. Everytime they tried to lock them in or hit them with rocks and such. Stop putting up with there crap. They ony do what you lef them get away with doing.
The 2nd Civil War has already begun, & it will get a lot worse. The woke will not give up. They will fight to the end.
Mike,
Whatever you say is fine with me. I actually do understand much of your unique vocabulary and mindset which I find incredibly divisive, if not abusive , and counter-productive, but it’s probably just a generational difference. I wish you a good life.
I am saddened by the lack of removal of judge not enforcing laws already written, prosecutors not filing the charges. The Merri-go-round must stop at the Federal SUPREME COURT. If your not first of the Constitutional Law out they must go. These are where all our Human Rights start, then state. We all have a say if you’re a USA citizen. Legal, no if ands or butts to it.
Craig Jenkins,
My comment was about yours and directly with the same intention as your follow-on.
Your ‘zero tolerance’ is a result of the new definitions by the left, and your reply to mine is as good an example of deflection as I could have come up with.
Neo-Confederate? Brother, you are not near as smart as you think you are…holy scheisse..Neo-Confederate, hahahah
John Roesli asks the operative question; “What is the intended outcome?”
One theory, at least, answers John’s question completely. It depends on the answer to the larger question of ‘Who unabashedly campaigns for total global dominance, and submission to their views?’ For those who claim the wisdom to impose Global Law on humanity, it is necessary to dismantle all societal constructs and cultures that compete with their vision, including the very nature of humanity as a two-sex species, the right to self-determination, or moral standards that run contrary to their views.
The “What” of John’s question is the easy part; “World Domination”. The “Who” is more difficult, but if we look at actions and stated purpose, two entities come to mind; China and Islam. Portland, Southern Border invasion, Antifa, “One-World-Order”, etc., are tactics to support objectives.
Dear Dr Hanson, I listen to you with a warm heart and growing agreement. However, I have suspended total agreement until I see someone go to jail. When will someone from the Des Moines School Board go to jail for failing to do their due diligence? When will someone from Portland (the Mayor or her staff) go to jail for obstructing the federal law? I am frustrated, flummoxed, and flabbergasted! The fallen nature of all mankind is sadly and shockingly on rampant display. May God change the hearts of all in Portland and call them to Himself through His Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My total trust is in God who is sovereign over all things. May God protect and bless you, Dr Hanson.
For VDH to compare what is happening in Blue States to the Confederates shows he has not understood history. Shame on him for being so ignorant.
The power of Seattle. In 1999, after 12 years of employment by the nation’s most liberal university the new president who proudly proclaimed herself to be the first lesbian university president in America fired my husband without cause. Her outside consultants (because she did not have the previous necessary experiecne to run a university) justified her action– “she just needed to prove how tough she could be!” We hired a black attorney on the recommendation of a white dean (married to a black panther). Needles to say after months of waiting it became clear our “attorney” was not working for us. They finally did give us the one year payment required by law in his employment contract, but then they blacklisted him, because he would not stay and help them get “research grants”! I tell you this so you can appreciate what happened next. I spent the next five years meeting with every possible attorney in Seattle who I thought might take our case. I walked into twenty three law offices in the Seattle/Olumpia/Everett area. Every single one of those attorneys told me the same thing: “I can’t take your case. I am afraid. They will destroy me.” When I would ask “who will destroy you” they would enevitabley answer the “wealthy feminists”. The great grand daughters of great wealth have become the communist mob. With mediocre educations they have decided to make the world a better place without regard to “law”, or even agreed upon ethics.
The power of Seattle. In 1999, after 12 years of employment by the nation’s most liberal university the new president who proudly proclaimed herself to be the first lesbian university president in America fired my husband without cause. Her outside consultants (because she did not have the previous necessary experiecne to run a university) justified her action– “she just needed to prove how tough she could be!” We hired a black attorney on the recommendation of a white dean (married to a black painter). Needles to say after months of waiting it became clear our “attorney” was not working for us. They finally did give us the one year payment required by law in his employment contract, but then they blacklisted him, because he would not stay and help them get “research grants”! I tell you this so you can appreciate what happened next. I spent the next five years meeting with every possible attorney in Seattle who I thought might take our case. I walked into twenty three law offices in the Seattle/Olumpia/Everett area. Every single one of those attorneys told me the same thing: “I can’t take your case. I am afraid. They will destroy me.” When I would ask “who will destroy you” they would enevitabley answer the “wealthy feminists”. The great grand daughters of great wealth have become the communist mob. With mediocre educations they have decided to make the world a better place without regard to “law”, or even agreed upon ethics.
Why aren’t these scofflaw Governors and mayors rounded up and frog-marched out of their bedrooms at 4:30 am like Trumps people were? While NewsMax & OAN cameramen await outside.
These people will have at least broken some laws!
Portland were well trained back during the riots some years past. I think it was 400 nights in a row the Phederal.Courthouse was attacked, pallets io bricks staged, congealed drinking water bottles, pyotechnic devices deployed, Molotov Cocktails hurled, every night over more than a year, The lame excuse o a president we had at the time did
Portlanders and phriends seem to have the mind that here we go again, we have phederal troops doing something we don’t like so we’ll simply lather, rinse, repeat and get the same outcome we got back then.
These insurrectionists are about to learn in the most painphul and perhaps terminal way that the monkey in the HurdyGurdy with which they gleephully toy is no the same one they had in the box last time. When they give that handle enough turns and the door pops open, there will be hell to pay, in spades, NOW. And once hey realise they’ve made a big boo boo, turning that crank handle backwards will only use up more o the seconds they will have remaining prior to their house being destroyed irreperably.
Is NO ONE aware The Cabbage is no longer president?
The current President is most certainly assessing his options, collecting his resources, ,putting together his troops and, when ready, will descend with the same precision demonstrated when Iran’s “impregnable” nuke labs were terminated. They won’t know what hit them.
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. Will someone explain why a protestor slowing down or interrupting an ICE agent isn’t OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE? Blocking them or talking over them… when their job is apprehending people and giving them orders… delays them from doing their jobs. This is literally obstructing them.
Follow the money: read the book, Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America [by Walter, Scott]. The so-called leaders of these blue cities and states are likely being paid off and/or physically threatened by the global elitists who want to dismantle our way of life (freedom, law and order, etc.).
Just asking does anyone here know which cartel bought all the Democrats and half of the Republicans? Seems to be the simplest explanation that fits all the facts.
Much has been said about how AOC is now the face of the Democrat party. If she is
then that face is gimcrack. What is gimcrack?? most will ask, surely not a real word.
Ah but it is. The definition is “a showy but useless trifle or ornament, a knickknack or
gewgaw that is cheap and of little value”. A carnival midway prize, or an AOC.
Would not the Whiskey Rebellion be the first parallel in American history when federal law was resisted by counties in western states, and the federal government brought in troops to suppress the rebels? Not that the situation is parallel, but the federal vs. local authority seems to be.
Agree wholeheartedly with Brian Bennett and hope Trump’s preemptiive actions in sending National Guard into sanctuary cities & states can avoid the civil war portrayed by Colin Powis.
False equivalence. If 1860 was today, the republicans would be the South and the democrats would be the north.
Please spare me your slavery comparisons because if was about slavery then why didn’t Lincoln sign the emancipation proclamation until 1863?
It was about radical leftists ( puritans) believing everyone should believe as they did or die. Tell me that doesn’t sound familiar.
I have,a,son in Denver who is a wee bit left of Bernie Saunders. My son also refuses to discuss religion. I on the other hand am slightly right of Atilla the Hun and a devout Christian. Where i am willing to discuss both subjects and try to look at his point view he isn’t open to ether. So, he has shut me out of his life. In doing so I’ve also lost my granddaughter.
Unfortunately with younger folks, they appear to have lost the art of choice or rhetoric.
I don’t see anything as severe as a civil war but I do seeorcoty falling apart. Portland Oregon is about 2 1/2 hous nortest of my home. Due to the turmoil there, i go there, I take care of my business and get the he’ll back to sanity as soon as possible.
America is heading for a second civil war because the Dems will never give up their migrants they invited into the country for nefarious reasons – and Trump is determined to deport them . And the war came !
What will it look like ? Something between the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Spanish Civil War of 1936 . The radical Dems will need to be either starved out or dug out of their strongholds by federal troops . Civil wars happen like going bankrupt- slowly, slowly, then suddenly ; we are in the ”bleeding Kansas” phase now
I think there’s a constitutional and historical perspective that supports VDH’s points.
Our country’s founding is based on federalism, where powers not reserved to the Federal government are reserved to the states (see 10th amendment). Notwithstanding lots of historical deviations, states really are petri dishes for governance experimentation. Look no further than the rationale of the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of Roe v Wade.
BUT, states’ rights are not a justification for nullification of Federal law. Federal law trumps state behaviors and preferences, and state laws that conflict with Federal law are invalid absent specific carveouts (e.g., the California Clean Air Act).
When it comes to sanctuary cities and states, no such carveouts exist … by definition, they exist to defy Federal law.
Of course, we all see this, and so does President Trump. His crime fighting strategy seems to be to build consensus and momentum by achieving a few glaring successes (e.g., DC) to embolden us faithful. He needs a few more successes before he can build a movement. The same with sanctuary jurisdictions.
So … which sanctuary jurisdiction to take down first, and how to do it? I think this is the President’s trajectory. Should Portland be an all-out effort? It can’t be a half-effort.
Did Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, or JFK ever have to contend with all these temporary restraining orders and injunctions?
It’s time to start arresting any and all who interfere with ICE in the least bit. Arrest them and prosecute them aggressively. Also, their employers — those hiring professional protestors —need to be aggressively pursued and prosecuted wherever a RICO violation has occurred. A conspiracy to interfere with federal law enforcement has to be a crime!
I don’t think any federal laws are actually being broken by State and/or Local governments. If these laws were being broken, why are federal agents not arresting the people responsible? I suspect the answer to that is because nothing that you are claiming is occurring. This just reeks of fake news.
A couple of additions to VDH’sbartical. In Portland, civilians being attacked by antifa are arrested, the antifa perp goes free.
VDH’s number of illegals only applies to those who’ve crossed at port of entries. There’s another 10M+ Illegals who cross our border, not being counted. There are thirty to forty million illegals in Country. And don’t forget the 500K/year, who overstay their visas.
It’s ironic the hypocritical leftists BJ, Obama, and Hillary pushed the exact same actions President Trump is enacting.
Those leftist presidents talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk.
As a born and raised Oregonian, who lived in a town only an hour drive from Portland, I consider this my own crisis. I long ago left Oregon (for Minneapolis, of all places!) due to its increasing intolerance of “normal” people. The TV show, “Portlandia” was a hint at what was too come. At the time, I laughed. It made fun of the crazies living in the Portland area around the year 2000. The state was already firmly in the grasp of the Democrat party, something that Governor Tom McCall warned of when I was a teen (late 60s and early 70s). He made the somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement that Californians were welcome to visit, but not to live in Oregon. Guess what? They chose to live in Oregon and destroy the very quality of life they found attractive, bringing with them their dysfunction and hatred for law and order. Now Oregon has a Democrat Super-majority, just like California, and conservatives have no voice at all. This has given the neo-Oregonians the idea they are superior to the Federal government and can do whatever they want. The Constitution says that is not the case, the Supremacy Clause, but the Oregon elite just do not care. Other states are right on the tail of Oregon dysfunction. The country needs to draw a line right now and put down this insurrection, the real deal this time, not the trumped up one on January 6, 2021.
Mike Smith,
Stop participating in the “progressive” attempt to add new meaning to words. These are idiots with their own vocabulary that few people understand or want for that matter.
Victor – since you write this, unbelievably, a federal judge ruled that Trump cannot use national guard to enforce federal law. This is the equivalent of some judge in 1861 saying Fort Sumter belonged to South Carolina so the civil war was unnecessary. Unfortunately it looks like the country is heading down a dangerous path where the hatred of Trump supersedes federal law.
The federal officers on the receiving end of ANTIFA thugs throwing fireworks and Molotov cocktails at them have shown repeated restraint far in excess of mine. Either device is potentially deadly and can easily maim the target for life. Under any of the restrictive rules of engagement I endured in Iraq or Afghanistan such an attack against me or my unit would have justified return fire with our M-4s and M-240s. The Officers are either much dumber or far braver than me and my comrades.
Declare those States to be in open rebellion and strip them of representation in the House and Senate. Use the Fiurteenth Amendment to disqualify them, as the Democrats tried to do against Trump.
A little context please. You are dealing with people who thought anyone that didn’t support Obama was a racist, who didn’t support Hillary or Kamala a misogynist , that Biden was sharp as a tack (until he wasn’t), thinks men can get pregnant and there are over 50 genders but cannot define a woman but thinks tampon dispensers belong in men’s washrooms. If you need more context you are likely not paying attention.
Great piece and I agree and appreciate your consistent comparison of todays insurrections approval by local governments to the actions on the confederacy of the 1860’s prior to Civil War.
One minor point.
JFK did not federalize State Troopers. That implies he took over the Sate Police, ie, Highway patrol etc.
JFK federalized the state national guard troops.
This is the Ft Sumter moment of the 2025 Second American Civil War. The “Blue Pacific States” are the new combatents to insure these freshly arrived slaves that poured into our Homeland, not to pick cotton but to be counted in the coming census and boosting Federal Representation. The right to vote will be the gift to those who have flooded into our Republic. As President Lincoln stated in 1858 as the strife in “Bleeding Kansas” escalated toward the war in his “House Divided” speech, “A House divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot indure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect this House to fall-but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all of one thing or all of the other”.
This is the Ft Sumter moment of the 2025 Second American Civil War. The “Blue Pacific States” are the new combatents to insure these freshly arrived slaves that poured into our Homeland, not to pick cotton but to be counted in the coming census and boosting Federal Representation. The right to vote will be the gift to those who have flooded into our Republic. As President Lincoln stated in 1858 as the strife in “Bleeding Kansas” escalated toward the war in his “House Divided” speech, “A House divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot indure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect this House to fall-but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all of one thing or all of the other”.
A District Federal judge just made a temporarily ruling (apparently across the country) prohibiting the federal government federalizing troops in Portland; I believe the judge said the government overreached its authority citing the 10th amendment.
How does the Constitution prevent this Judicial overreach?
I agree with Tammy Carr, unless and until something is done to stop billionaire financiers like the Soros’, whose son interestingly recently married Hillary’s long-time confidant and organizer, and others of their ilk, like Neville Roy Singham, who recently fled to his digs in Shanghai, will highly probably continue to grow.
We were advised in the past when looking at prior revolutions and takeovers like Cuba, Venezuela, etc., it only takes approx 20% of the populace to gain complete control. E.g., why on earth was Barrack Obama’s ghost writer, Bill Ayers, allowed a teaching post at a university in Illinois except to enhance the brainwashing of young minds? From the sounds of recent news, it appears we approach that 20% req.
Like the summer of riots after G Floyd:
Same tent, different clowns.
Who pays for these peoples’ room and board.
Follow the money. File charges of sedition.
Jail time.
The real story here is that the Democrats support any opposition to the Trump Administration, even if that means supporting policies that 70 or 80% of the people oppose. Stated differently, the Dems can’t say no to the left.
This weakness has been apparent since the presidential election of 2016, more importantly, the Democratic primaries. In a debate the nearly dozen Dem aspirants were asked a group question:
do you support giving helathcare to those who did not come to the USA legally. All the candidates raised their hands, including Joe Biden. One suspects that some wanted to say “no” but feared the hard left reaction. The point is that the Democrat Party is controlled by the left’s continuing evolving defintion of proper policy.
Back in 2016 a candidate like Zohan Mamdani could not have been nominated as the Democrat candidate for NYC’s mayor. Today he seems almost mainstream left. Indeed, has any mainstream left leader criticized Momdani?
Tim Kelly, Naples, FL
Start by following the money funding the violence and much of this will settle down quickly. Or let it run its course and fill the federal prison system with the fellow travelers and useful idiots and use the videos in every campaign ad for the midterms. People are waking up to this violent rhetoric and behavior and the not so silent majority will be heard from again in the midterms.
VDH. I know you said to concentrate on DC and not to go into the lib cities. Your advice to The Feds was excellent. Why not concentrate on Blue cities in Red states?
I don’t feel you can ignore the third party in this, which boost the left to keep doing what they do and aid in the propaganda messages. The Judicial branch seeded for years with left wing activists. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the rot of the Judicial branch.
Zero tolerance is a progressive ideal for enforcement of poorly considered laws.
Tolerance is an important part of moral authority, but it shouldn’t be used in excess.
Instead of zero tolerance there should be thorough enforcement.
Yet, prosecution ‘to the fullest extent of the law’ is often a waste of time and money for the taxpayer who is funding a prosecutor’s next election instead of having an effective representative in court.
Time should be spent on developing a case against the lawbreakers (criminals) and the law perforators (judges who find every excuse available to NOT convict or to hamstring law enforcement).
The unwritten, unlawful “Open Border” policies created the circumstances and the “Sanctuary City/State” declarations and directives have compounded those circumstances and led us to this point. Rather than lobby Congress to make, change, or modify existing immigration laws or influence policy; Rather than advocate ballot measures to achieve constituent mandates; Rather than cooperate and lead resolution, the choice is to usurp the Federal Government. Now relying on street thugs, vandals, distorted media reporting, and pressuring of local law enforcement to uphold these “Sanctuary” policies? What is the intended outcome?
As usual, an outstanding summation of what is happening in liberal cities in regards of illegal aliens, antifa and the left wing. Thanks Victor.
You don’t allow enough space for a good reply. Most of my previous comment was cut off.
https://victorhanson.com/reactionary-neo-confederate-portland/
Dear Mr. Hanson,
In your above linked article you squash the idea of State’s rights. Before Lincoln’s illegal invasion of the legally seceded Southern States, the federal government was not designed, or intended, to have more power than the States. The States, contrary to what Lincoln said, created the federal government – not the other way around. At the close of the American Revolution, the British Crown agreed to the Treaty of Paris, which says in part:
Article 1st:
His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States; that he treats with them as such, and for himself his Heirs & Successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, Propriety, and Territorial Rights of the same and every Part thereof. (Emphasis mine.)
Thomas Jefferson had this to say:
From a letter to William B. Giles: Monticello, December 26, 1825.
I see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic, and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their
Zero tolerance.
“America fought a Civil War over Confederate states’ efforts to ignore federal law and confiscate or occupy federal property within their state jurisdictions………Antifa and the appeasing Oregon officials are our new neo-Confederate secessionists. They feel that their states are now autonomous entities that are still entitled to federal money but not obligated to follow federal laws.”
You understand that the Confederate States each decided to leave the Union through their legislative bodies and then form a new independent nation with a new Constitution right? The Articles of Confederation and the Constitutional Union of 1787 were not a mafia death pact, where any state that joins is now “owned” forever by the Federal system. Such death contracts are unheard of in all of Western legal jurisprudence, and such logic certainly flies in the face of the 1776 Declaration of Independence. The Confederates had every right to leave the Union under the same moral authority as free men as their fathers exercised in 1776 against Britain.
Since there can be no principled or logical argument with that conclusion, it is clear that the “Federal Property” in the territory of the new Confederate States of America needed to change hands. Lincoln negotiated compensation and withdrew federal troops from all Southern forts except one, which he reinforced, an indication of bad faith on the part of a President who needed an incident he could leverage into war.
The solution is simple – start arresting and charging state and local officials. Make an example out of someone and the cowardly left will implode
The Federal Government never did a thing when states defied Federal Law and legalized marijuana. This is a result of that.
insurrectionists+