Last week, I wrote about Texas Governor Gregg Abbott’s institution of vehicle safety inspections along the U.S.-Mexico border, ostensibly aimed at stopping human and drug smuggling but in reality a power play by the governor to challenge federal border authority and burnish his right-wing credentials ahead of this year’s gubernatorial race. Abbott subsequently suspended the program, claiming that “Mexican officials had agreed to new security measures.” But given the immense backlash from the business community, it seems more than likely that Abbott decided to cut his losses while the cutting was good.
It’s important to note, though, that Abbott kept the operation in place just long enough to create an impression of toughness and anti-immigrant animus for conservative voters, but not long enough for the Biden administration to slap down his actions as an unconstitutional interference in federal prerogatives such as border control and the conduct of foreign policy. In this sense, Abbott’s strategy can be seen as a success. As we also noted last week, the inspections served as a way to harm the larger American economy and thus Democrats’ re-election prospects in November — a weaponization of trade across the border to achieve Republican political objectives. As historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes, Abbott’s actions comes from an authoritarian playbook: “What Abbott did is a continuation of far-right democracy destabilization tactics also seen with the convoy movement (and used in Chile before the 1973 coup). You sabotage the flow of goods and create hardships for the sitting democratic govt. Watch for more of this.” This follows a pattern of other such behavior, perhaps most notably the GOP’s murderous covid policies — a connection Catherine Rampel makes when she observes that, “He might presume that angry voters will see backlogged traffic, empty store shelves and struggling businesses and blame President Biden, even though this latest contribution to supply-chain woes comes courtesy of Abbott’s own policies. If that sounds far-fetched, recall that Abbott and other Republicans have tried to blame Biden for mounting covid infections and deaths, even as these same politicians have deliberately sown distrust in vaccines and undermined or outright barred efforts to increase vaccination and other covid-prevention measures.”
This is why it’s essential that Democrats do what they can to shape the narrative of Abbott’s actions, including their dark intent and destructive effects. On the economic level alone, the indictment of the governor’s policy is striking; one economic research firm estimates that the U.S. economy lost nearly $9 billion due to the delays and losses resulting from the inspections (think rotted fruit and supply chain disruptions). Beyond this, the Democrats (starting with Beto O’Rourke, who’s running to unseat Abbott) can make the straightforward case that Abbott was willing to hurt ordinary Americans in order to enhance his standing with hard-core conservatives. Not only is this a powerful and necessary line of attack against the Texas governor, it is an easy-to-understand story that also reflects broader GOP prioritization of the party’s goals over the public good.
Once again, one is struck by the high risk/high reward aspect of such right-wing strategies. As Ben-Ghiat notes, the inspection regime was intended in part to hurt Democrats’ ability to govern — but accomplishing such an end is not cost-free. Abbott’s inspections have brought backlash from the normally GOP-friendly business community, and it should not be difficult for Democrats to parlay that into voter doubts about the Republican Party’s supposed confidence around the economy more generally. And on the national stage, Democrats can link Abbott’s actions to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ war on Disney, which is about to unleash economic pain on ordinary citizens in that state. The GOP is using economic warfare as a political weapon, and a truthful, accurate account of this should prove unsettling to many Americans. Beyond this, the Democrats can no longer shy away from a unified message that describes GOP strategies, from anti-mask and anti-vaccine rhetoric to undermining the economy through interfering with cross-border trade, as a coherent strategy to harm the common good out of a right-wing lust for power and domination.