Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Law And Order...

Richard Nixon, previous holder of the Presidential title belt for Worst Defender of the Constitution, ran as the "Law and Order" candidate. What this meant was that Nixon would arrest the civil rights and anti-war protestors that offended the sensibilities of his Silent Majority. 

Trump, who surrounds himself with a few of Nixon's old ratfuckers, is taking that to the next level.  "Law and Order" was always racially coded, but Nixon benefited from small measure of doubt, as he wasn't actively trying to roll back basic civil rights for minorities.

His contempt for the rule of law can best be seen in the two cases where he has pardoned someone.  Joe Arpaio got a pardon, and now Dinesh D'Souza gets one.  D'Souza has a felony conviction for campaign finance law violations that were transparently illegal - he funnelled money through his mistress (family values!).  Partly because Trump is himself a criminal and partly because D'Souza is a similarly tempered troll, this pardon makes perfect sense.

As long as fairness, the rule of law and a sense of justice don't enter into it.

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