The party of law and order has given new meaning to "law and order."
In 1968, after riots scorched the streets of so many American cities, Richard Nixon and other Republicans tried to reassure white voters by campaigning on a return to "law and order." That phrase always carried many layers of racial coding, and Nixon's narrow interpretation of criminal behavior became evident by 1975 when at least 17 of his top aides and campaign staff members were convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the Watergate burglary. Nixon himself came close to being indicted after resigning, but was pardoned by Gerald Ford. |
A half-century later, not much has changed in the way Republicans practice the politics of crime. "Florida is a law-and-order state," says Gov. Ron DeSantis. "We must have law and order," says Nikki Haley, the former governor of North Carolina. "We need to get tough on crime," according to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. |
But the crimes they want to get tough on are always of the same kind: "violent" crimes on the streets of American cities, preferably cities run by Democrats. The kind of crimes that make suburban residents install doorbell cameras, stock up on guns, and vote for the politician who says "lock them up" the loudest. |
But not the kind of crimes perpetrated by a corporation that pollutes a river. Not the kind perpetrated by tax cheats or insider traders or hate groups. Federal crimes just aren't as compelling a campaign issue, and never seem to come up in the Republican list of the nation's plagues. (They also don't mention that the per capita murder rate is actually higher in red states.) |
The Trump era has further narrowed how his party views crime. Because the F.B.I. and Justice Department have investigated Donald Trump for years, Republicans now say that the F.B.I. has to be dismantled and rebuilt, and that no prosecution by the Justice Department can really be trusted. Trump's indictment for purloining national secrets from the White House certainly isn't a crime to Republicans, and neither was the Jan. 6, 2021 invasion of the United States Capitol. Both Trump and DeSantis are talking about pardoning the insurrectionists who vandalized American government in the hope of keeping Trump in office. |
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