Words on paper. What happens when an NG commander gets his 'you're federalized' orders, and ashcans them?
We've got a couple veterans here. They'll tell you: never give an order that won't be obeyed. If they try to nationalize the NG and it fails, well... honk honk.
I hear that Alabama's governor also blew off the mandate. I suspect the whole Southeast is going to tell Biden to fuck himself. Not a good look for someone wanting 'respect'.
This kind of thing is how you get a civil war, by failing to follow Rule 1 of Command.
Never give an order that will not be followed.
The reason is simple; once they overcome the threshold to disobey an order, they start doing it for
every order and command authority collapses.
Sure, one little mayor seems like a small deal when they declare that X federal rule will not be followed; masks, guns, whatever. But it puts the Feds in a fix, either they do nothing and let their authority slowly erode and the country balkanize OR they crack down to try and make the mayor bend the knee.
What happens when the mayor doesn't bend? When the city council refuses to remove him, when the local PD and citizens rally around him, and the Feds end up arresting half a township for one little mayor standing up for his town? Well, done and dusted, right? CNN will call them all terrorists, the FBI office gets a commendation, and it's settled, right?
Wrong. The underlying command authority has not been restored, the arrested people are now martyrs, and trust is damaged. This sets the stage for another conflict, maybe even a larger one in a bigger city. And eventually, if the rift is not repaired (which the current power structure seems to have no interest in) the conflict will eventually rise to a governor telling DC to sit and spin.
That will be the real fireworks, I tell you. When a state's governor stands up and tells the Feds to fuck off with the support of his constituents then we are past the point of no return. The local FBI or Federal marshals might be sent to arrest the governor, and in response state authorities will be instructed to escort every Fedboi to the border. You better hope the local PD and state troopers are able to do that without firing a shot. Though if the shooting doesn't start there, it'll likely really kick off at any local military or NG bases. Assuming that they don't flip to support the Governor when this goes down.
Any way you slice it, this all starts with the political elite forgetting that all their power and authority derives ultimately from the consent of the governed. They have departed too far, and have sown the whirlwind.
This has been going on for years, with the 'Sancturary Cities' for illegal invaders and the low grade sedition with activist judges and the open defiance with 'autonomous zones' and if you want to lay some blame on Trump for tolerating it you can. Regardless, the situation has been ratcheted up by the Democrats and Marxist Left for decades now, and here we have Biden turning everything up to 11.