Where they will do what the Texas National Guard did under Abbott: not a goddamned thing.JUST IN: Gov. Chris Sununu has announced that he is deploying the New Hampshire National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. https://t.co/bYpUetRPKi
— WMUR TV (@WMUR9) October 3, 2022
Because they are not the Border Patrol and they are not law enforcement. They can report on incursions across the border, if they see them. They can report them to the Border Patrol. But the Texas Guard got so bored sitting on the border doing nothing that some deserted and suicide watch became an issue,
This is not really any different than DeSantis’ stunt, except Sununu is using people who have even less choice in the matter, and are even less free in their movements when they reach journey’s end.
Not that anybody will see it that way. Because nobody thinks Sununu is a player in national politics. So what he does to people doesn’t really matter. In a manner of speaking.
Sununu is expected to easily cruise to victory in his reelection for governor. Political stunts like this are almost always when a candidate sees the election at risk and they think they need a boost. It was a political surprise when he declined to run against Hassan for the US senate. Hassan only won last time by a thousand or so votes and is only modestly popular. Sununu could have had her seat with minimal effort. Also, he pitches himself as a moderate Republican, vetoing every session one or two of the most crazy bills, while letting most of the conservative agenda stand (along with a concerted effort to undermine public education and get school vouchers for private education). So this is all a bit baffling. All I can think is he has delusions of grander things, which given his pass on the senate means he wants to run for president. Maybe the calculation is this will shore up the right wing while he continues the veneer of moderation. The constituency for a candidate like that in today's Republican party seems very small. His moderation on abortion, fine with signing legislation for more restrictions but against an outright ban, may be more closely aligned with general public sentiment but looks to be absolutely fatal with the Republican base.
ReplyDeleteNew Hampshire Republicans had a reasonable chance this cycle to unseat the Democrat Hassan for US Senate, and the democrats for both house seats. The Republicans already control both state houses, the executive committee and the governorship. In the primaries however, they picked the most extremist candidates in every case, passing over well established Republicans instead. The result is that the Democrats have a reasonable chance to hold on to all three, when previously they would have been lucky to hold on to one. Sununu sending the guard to Texas looks only to hurt himself with independents. He is going to win anyway, just maybe by a slightly smaller margin. It's all a head scratcher.