To be fair, when actions like this have taken place historically, and been successful, it's because politicians sympathetic to the cause use the momentum to take control. The problem here is that political power is so fractured and diffuse in our system that even if a Ted Cruz or some other ghoul tried, they would have been hammered down by hundreds of other equally powerful figures. The fact that the governors of both MD and VA sent in their state guard against federal law shows the kind of hurtles this strategy has.