There's a dramatic struggle underway between the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, and the federal government. Who has the supreme authority over the border?
Gov. Abbott, supported at least rhetorically by 25 other Republican governors, stated: "Texas has a right as a state to stop criminals from coming into our state, to make arrests of those criminals — and we have National Guard as well as Texas Department of Public Safety officers who are there to make those arrests and to deny illegal entry. ..."
There long has been a spirited struggle between the states and the national government about the centralization of power. Goes back to President George Washington's administration.
Small-government conservatives like me lean toward the states. With exceptions.
One of these exceptions? Accepting immigrants, as the conservative thing.
Why? Today, nation after nation is being beset by a disastrous population implosion.
The United States is one of the few first world nations that is even at population break-even. Much of the world is in population free fall.
That's a national security threat! Scooping up immigrants is the obvious solution.
Bonus: Immigrants tend to be quite far to the right, especially on social issues. A bonanza for us right wingers.
Which is why, despite my preference for deferring to the states, Gov. Abbott only gets a single cheer here. That said, credit where due, Abbott has read the room while President Joe Biden oddly flounders.
Meanwhile, a power struggle is subtly embedded in the very name of our nation: the United States of America.
Emphasis on "United?" Or "States?"
Long ago, the United States' first charter was so deferential to the states that our national government was as weak as is the United Nations today. America's founders rejected our original confederation as giving the federal government too little power.
So, we replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution. That was right for its time, when even the conjoined 13 former colonies were weak and vulnerable to the emperors and kings who then ruled the world.
That was then. Now, there's a big downside to too strong a union. I observed at CNBC in 2011, reiterated at Forbes in 2018 and at Newsmax in 2023, a big federal government is expensive:
"The federal government spent $15 billion from 1789 – 1900. Not $15 billion a year. $15 billion cumulatively. Uncle Sam will spend $10 billion a day in 2011. The federal government spends more every two days than it did altogether for more than America's first century.
"Although these sums are not adjusted for inflation [or population] they give a correct impression of the magnitude of the change from what our Founders set forth and our early statesmen delivered."
It's grown far worse since 2011. Uncle Sam now spends $16B per day, more in a day than it originally spent, cumulatively, over 111 years.
Our predecessors replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution because our union then had too little power to tax and too little power to regulate. I reported, in The American Spectator in 2019:
"... the consensus of historians about the Articles is summarized succinctly by History.com:
"... Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money.
"However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce ..."
A central government constrained in its ability to tax and regulate? Bartender, pour this archconservative a double!
Yes, back in the Days of Yore the 13 original states — and their first confederation — were weak. This put America at risk of being dominated by foreign emperors.
Hence, building a powerful central government then was a necessity. The empires have fallen.
My modest proposal was to repeal the Constitution (keeping the Bill of Rights, the reconstruction amendments and the 19th and 22nd) and to restore the USA to its confederated roots akin to that sweet land of liberty, Switzerland.
D.C. and the states have been in a long and good argument. Yet even that strong central government advocate Alexander Hamilton argued at the New York State ratifying convention:
"There are certain social principles in human nature, from which we may draw the most solid conclusion with respect to the conduct of individuals and of communities. We love our families more than our neighbors; we love our neighbors more than our countrymen in general.
"The human affections, like the solar heat, lose their intensity as they depart from the centre, and become languid in proportion to the expansion of the circle in which they act.'"
Gov. Abbott, want to pick a bone with the federales? Have at it!
That said, welcoming the huddled masses yearning to breathe free is the true conservative way.
Ralph Benko, co-author of "The Capitalist Manifesto" and chairman and co-founder of "The Capitalist League," is the founder of The Prosperity Caucus and is an original Kemp-era member of the Supply-Side revolution that propelled the Dow from 814 to its current heights and world GDP from $11T to $94T. Read Ralph Benko's reports — More Here.
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