The Blue Line Matters To Them

 One of the seemingly naïve statements in regards to Republicans is that they can never again be allowed to say "Blue Live Matter" if they do not support holding Trump accountable for the crimes of 1/6. Other lives don't matter to a certain segment of Republican, most typified by Donald Trump, but also his hellspawn - Devin Nunes, Josh Hawley and Matt Gaetz.  

There is a statement attributed to Frank Wilhoit; it goes like this:

    Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the        law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

This is the essence of the Blue Line flags seen at the Capitol in early January and that hang from flag poles all over the country. It is not in support of the "rule of law" that critical and fragile condition upon which all democracy rests. It is about the line that stands between them - white, rural, aggrieved - and the dawning 21st century America - multiracial, multicultural, educated. My neighbors (it's a very Trumpy town) see the neighboring small city of Waterbury not as a struggling rust belt town with pockets of poverty that should be addressed and elevated, but as a dangerous place full of thieves ready to invade their homes. A recent rash of car theft has added fuel to this fire, whereby the Black and Brown residents of Waterbury are alien and threatening. It's a reminder that the "American Carnage" theme of Trump's inaugural address remains the touchstone to understanding his appeal.

To the degree that police share this philosophy, they stand in agreement with this conservative belief. They see themselves as the Thin Blue Line between order and anarchy, with anarchy - antifa, if you will - being explicitly racial in composition. 

What we are seeing the impeachment trial is the degree to which conservatives do not see the law as binding on them. They are shocked when the police do not join their side, outraged that police would not side with them against the out-group. They respond with the violence that we see in the new videos, because when the police no longer serve the purpose of "binding the outgroup" but serving the rule of law, they are no longer to be revered. 

(I caught a little heat on Facebook for saying that I did not think the Capitol police were to blame for 1/6. Leadership, yes, for not seeing what was coming, but the police themselves were not complicit the way the Hot Take Brigade assumed. I feel vindicated a bit, not that it matters.)

For all the talk of "unity," the reality is that this group of white people see the purpose of government as to restrain people who are not like them. It's a Hobbesian belief tempered and shaped by white supremacy. To them, the cities full of out-group people are, by definition, not real Americans. Again, Sarah Palin is Trump's precursor, with her talk of "Real Americans." There can be no unifying with that perspective. 

What the Trumpist mob is discovering is that they slipping into the position of "out-group." As they shrink further into the minority, things will get worse, not better.