Krull
Sometimes, solutions to problems just present themselves.
Conservatives across the nation have worked themselves into high dudgeon over two developments — Drag Queen Story Hours and the flow of undocumented immigrants across the southern border of the United States.
Drag Queen Story Hours began years ago when LGBTQ citizens in some cities started hosting reading sessions in public libraries.
Conservative critics jumped on the story hours. They said the drag queens were “grooming” children. One might have thought, though, if that were their intent, the readers would have chosen venues where parents, library staffers and other members of the public couldn’t attend, but, nonetheless, the critics felt they had identified a grave threat to the civic good.
The drag queens said they hosted the story hours to let children know that not everyone in the world is heterosexual. The drag queens also wanted to show not just children but all other people that they were, well, also just people themselves.
And if they are people, too, then they have the same First Amendment rights as everyone else. That means telling them they can’t read or say what they wish to any audience that wishes to hear them violates the Constitution.
Okay, so that’s one problem.
The other is the border.
Conservatives such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, are upset—really, really, really upset—that undocumented immigrants are crossing into the country. Abbott decided to give vent to his anger by threatening to defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling saying border agents could cut razor wire blocking entry into the state.
Abbott has managed to persuade 25 other Republican governors — including Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb — to sign a statement agreeing with him. Abbott even lured a handful of those governors, including Holcomb, to come to Texas to stand in symbolic solidarity with him at the Lone Star State’s southern border.
Here’s the rub.
The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government sole authority to conduct foreign policy. What’s more, Article 1, Section 8, clause 4 of the Constitution specifically grants Congress the sole power to determine immigration and naturalization policy.
So, if Abbott, Holcomb and the other Republican governors have their knickers twisted in knots because of their distress over immigration, they should travel to Washington, D.C., and pester Congress to do something about the situation.
Why didn’t they?
Well, probably because U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has said he and his GOP colleagues in the people’s chamber don’t want to do anything about immigration right now. Johnson said this even though the U.S. Senate just passed — with both Republican and Democratic votes — a new package that would fund the toughest border security measures in American history.
Confused?
That’s forgivable.
Johnson, who also says the border “crisis” is the biggest challenge confronting the United States, is taking his marching orders from former President Donald Trump. Trump wants Republicans to do nothing about the border for now because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to receive any credit for solving the problem.
Just how Biden would receive credit for solving a problem he had to be prodded and even dragooned into acknowledging, Trump doesn’t say—maybe because figuring that out would require actual thought.
Trump’s intransigence leaves Republicans who have spent decades fulminating over immigration in a quandary.
They don’t want to defy Trump for fear that daddy — whose already shaky hold on his notorious temper erodes still further when he’s facing multiple charges for criminal conduct — will spank them.
So, instead they choose to deny reality and defy both the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court, while also proclaiming themselves law-and-order governors and strict constitutional constructionists.
This is a problem.
Well, really two problems, if you count the drag-queen drama.
Fortunately, there is a solution.
Instead of having drag queens host story hours at public libraries, why don’t we have them read the U.S. Constitution to the nation’s governors? The text seems to be one with which Abbott, Holcomb and the others who took part in the photo op in Texas are unacquainted.
Having drag queens read it to them would accomplish two things.
It would remind the governors where their duties lie—hint, not in crafting foreign or immigration policy — and it would acquaint them with the notion that every American has rights guaranteed by our founding charter.
See?
Two problems.
One tidy solution.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Send comments to [email protected].
