January 23, 2026
In early 1861, the United States Senate rejected the Crittenden Compromise, 25-23. This was a last-ditch effort to avoid war by proposing Constitutional amendments to protect slavery where it existed and extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific. North of that, no slavery, south, slavery.
Over the next four years, 600,000 Americans would die to determine whether or not the Federal government was the ultimate power in this country or whether a state could take that authority for itself. Many people assume Lincoln’s primary purpose in the Civil War (in the South, called the War Between the States) was to end slavery. This is not true:
“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others, I would also do that. What I do about slavery, I do because I believe it helps save the Union.”
Letter to Horace Greeley, Editor of the NY Tribune, 1862
It’s in the Constitution, Federal Supremacy. Article I, Section 8 in part gives the Federal government the power to “provide for common defense and general welfare, raise and support armed forces.” The 10th Amendment allows Congress to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out its enumerated duties.
The supremacy of the Federal government is laid out in the Constitution and is the cornerstone of maintaining a united, cohesive country. Without that, we are a conglomeration of dozens of small states (Vermont, Idaho, New Mexico…) with a few genuinely country-sized entities (California, New York, Florida…).
The Supremacy Clause is clear:
“The supreme law of the land and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Local politicians play a dangerous game when they refuse to co-operate with agents of the government. Whether ICE, the IRS or the FDA, it is incumbent on the states to support and aid the Federal government. If you do not like what it is doing, you go to the ballot box to change it. But you do not have the luxury of deciding which aspects of the law you’ll support and which ones you won’t. We’re not allowed to cherry pick our adherence to the law. That’s called Russia.
Here is the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, recently on Federal immigration authorities:
“Get the f*** out of Minneapolis”
“We do not want you here.”
“ICE should leave the city and state immediately.”
Frey signed an executive order banning Federal officials from using city property for staging areas.
I asked Claude AI for a definition of Sedition the bold is mine:
Sedition is conduct or speech that incites people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. It involves actions or language intended to undermine or overthrow the government, or to resist or instigate resistance against lawful authority.
Key characteristics:
- Intent matters: Sedition typically requires intent to incite rebellion, violence, or resistance against the government, not just criticism or disagreement with government policies.
- Falls short of treason: Unlike treason (which involves levying war against one’s country or aiding enemies), sedition involves inciting others to resist or oppose government authority but doesn’t necessarily involve direct acts of war or betrayal.
We all get it, there is also a First Amendment issue involved, especially with a properly elected government official. So, there is some fuzz on the line, where the boundary is. But you know what? Minnesota is the land of ice hockey, and I have no doubt Mayor Frey understands what dangers lurk when one skates on thin ice.
And if you demonize those officers who, after all, are just enforcing the law, you embolden people to drive cars at them or worse.
While it may feel as though this is a kind of “soft” secession from the Federal government, it is actually more akin to a concept called devolution. This is where a political entity remains in a federal system but takes on more power from the central government. Scotland offers a good example; it devolved from the UK in 1999. Here is what was devolved (ceded to Scotland) and what was not (kept with the British government):
What was devolved:
Education policy
Healthcare (NHS Scotland)
Justice and policing
Local government
Agriculture and fisheries
Environment
Transportation infrastructure
Some taxation powers (added in 2016)
What remained with Westminster:
Foreign policy
Defense
Immigration
Most economic policy
Constitutional matters
It is interesting that the Brits and the Scots, a reasonable although at times hard-headed group, felt that immigration had to remain on the pad of the central government.
So, my take is that the conversation we should be having is about devolution. But in the interim, it is well to remember that sedition is a real thing and for locals to test those waters not only puts officers’ lives at risk (witness the 1300% increase in attacks on ICE officers since Biden and the inevitable violence) but all of us at risk.
Now in regard to that resistance to ICE. Immigration is robust in the United States. We welcome over 1,000,000 immigrants per year into our country, people who have followed the rules and applied and been accepted. I do not know of anyone who objects to the general concept of legal immigration. The border simply needs to be shut to illegal immigration. This is a kind of 101 forehead-slap thing, I don’t know why people have difficulty with it.
If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. And you need to know who is here.
Those are the facts. So, the enforcement of the law, while at times difficult to watch, is the difference between a lawless society and one living by the law. IMO instead of castigating and vilifying attempts to enforce the law, perhaps that time should be spent questioning those who led illegals to believe they could come here and stay, start their life here by ignoring our laws. Mayor Frey might be among those, I don’t know.
As to the people killed.
Just from a common sense, good judgement perspective. Nothing political no political message. I think if you get up in the morning and say to yourself, “Great day to go out and confront Federal officers in the street, impede them, shout at them, get in their way, drive my car around them or maybe at them, harass them. Just better check to see if I need rain gear this morning.”
I think that’s a bad call to make. Not a great judgement moment. So, you go and you get tangled up in street violence, in the unexpected mayhem that occurs when bunches of disorganized people get all purple-faced and go after professionals with guns and more, professionals with guns who are trained and are allowed by the law to use them if attacked.
So, you’re putting your life on the line with perhaps some agent who might panic, or some veteran who won’t and you’re relying on their split-second judgement to keep yourself safe. Is that how you spend your morning?
Were the shootings justified? In terms of this conversation, it doesn’t matter to the individual involved. If the shootings were not justified, are you going to come back to life?
In terms of striking an agent with your car. I imagine for a moment that people begin to ‘nudge’ ICE agents with their vehicles and are not held accountable for that. You tell me…where does that eventually all go? And do we expect agents to calmly parse the speed of the car, and how hard they were hit and whether or not the driver looks innocent before they decide what to do?
So, I’m not sure there is a lot of leeway for you if you take a motor vehicle and treat it as a weapon.
Here’s an interesting fact: 24% of the population of a large state is comprised of immigrants. And 9% of another large state is comprised of immigrants. Can you guess?
The State of Florida has 24% of its population comprised of immigrants. This is a total of 5 million people. The 9% state is Minnesota where they have 500,000 immigrants. Florida’s immigrant population alone is the size of the entire population of Minnesota. Immigrants make up nearly 50% of the population of Miami.
We are chock full of immigration down here and everyone seems to get along without a lot of fuss. It can be done.
The biggest street brawl we’ve had recently was when one of the bars in Daytona Beach forbid motorcycle gangs attending Motorcycle Week from wearing their colors in the bar. There were, nonetheless some relatively minor gang scuffles, but no one died and they simply flooded the place with police who were not shoved around by participants. The bar banned colors because they did not want to inflame a potentially violent situation.
So, I’m wondering if a bar owner in Daytona Beach gets it that it shouldn’t be a difficult thing for elected officials to get. They did ask for the vote because they pose themselves as leaders.
I wonder…what makes the experience in these two states so very different? You’d think with 5 million immigrants, we’d have a lot of mayhem going on in the streets. ICE has been extremely active down here.
You’d think that but you’d be wrong.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
