By Greg Sargent
Columnist |
July 26, 2022 at 12:39 p.m. EDT
Donald Trump is delivering a speech Tuesday in which he proclaims to be for law and order. He is doing this half a mile from the Capitol, where he incited numerous crimes on his behalf amid an extraordinarily corrupt and potentially criminal scheme planned and executed by Trump himself.
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If that seems jarring, please note: That incongruence increasingly defines a trend represented by a new breed of Trumpist candidates.
Their common trait? They cast themselves as tough on law and order while embracing the most pernicious aspects of Trump’s effort to persuade millions to give up on the rule of law and democracy, and to remain above accountability for his attempt to destroy our legal and political order at its foundations.
Some of these candidates are feeding the public the same lies Trump used to inspire those criminal acts on Jan. 6, 2021. Others are hand-waving away those same crimes. Still others are scoffing at the need for any accountability at all for Trump’s coup attempt.
The “rule of law” involves certain hallmarks: equality before the law, stable political and legal institutions, a commitment to accountability and no special treatment for the very powerful. These candidates are making an utter mockery of such notions: They combine phony pieties about lawful and civil order with craven fealty to Trump’s lawlessness and his bid for utter impunity, and to the undisguised authoritarian nature of his movement.
Take Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. Mastriano has made law and order an important part of his campaign, insisting Democrats are anti-police while being driven by a “culture of lawlessness.”
But Mastriano was a leader of Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 loss and pushed the radical theory that presidential electors can be appointed in defiance of the popular vote, based on lies about fraud. He aggressively fed the stolen-election fiction, which inspired many Jan. 6 defendants and continues to mislead countless Americans about the integrity of our electoral institutions.
Or take Scott Jensen, the leading GOP candidate for governor in Minnesota. He cites crime as a top priority, hyping 2020 “riots” during which cities were “burned and looted.” Meanwhile, he has refused to say Trump lost in 2020 and even called for the jailing of Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, sneering that he might “look good in stripes.”
Calls for jailing members of the opposition for presiding over elections that yielded hated outcomes — Jensen baselessly suggested the Democrat had “gotten away” with a 2020 scam — is textbook lawlessness. It’s doubly galling coming from someone who piously invokes law and order.
Then there’s Adam Laxalt, the GOP nominee for Senate in Nevada. He recently hosted an event with Trump himself designed to showcase law-and-order toughness. Yet Laxalt lent support to the stolen-election lie, suggested voting in urban areas is suspect while claiming it’s “legitimate” in GOP areas, and dramatically downplayed Jan. 6, claiming “very few” people broke laws.
Columnist |
July 26, 2022 at 12:39 p.m. EDT
Donald Trump is delivering a speech Tuesday in which he proclaims to be for law and order. He is doing this half a mile from the Capitol, where he incited numerous crimes on his behalf amid an extraordinarily corrupt and potentially criminal scheme planned and executed by Trump himself.
Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
If that seems jarring, please note: That incongruence increasingly defines a trend represented by a new breed of Trumpist candidates.
Their common trait? They cast themselves as tough on law and order while embracing the most pernicious aspects of Trump’s effort to persuade millions to give up on the rule of law and democracy, and to remain above accountability for his attempt to destroy our legal and political order at its foundations.
Some of these candidates are feeding the public the same lies Trump used to inspire those criminal acts on Jan. 6, 2021. Others are hand-waving away those same crimes. Still others are scoffing at the need for any accountability at all for Trump’s coup attempt.
The “rule of law” involves certain hallmarks: equality before the law, stable political and legal institutions, a commitment to accountability and no special treatment for the very powerful. These candidates are making an utter mockery of such notions: They combine phony pieties about lawful and civil order with craven fealty to Trump’s lawlessness and his bid for utter impunity, and to the undisguised authoritarian nature of his movement.
Take Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. Mastriano has made law and order an important part of his campaign, insisting Democrats are anti-police while being driven by a “culture of lawlessness.”
But Mastriano was a leader of Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 loss and pushed the radical theory that presidential electors can be appointed in defiance of the popular vote, based on lies about fraud. He aggressively fed the stolen-election fiction, which inspired many Jan. 6 defendants and continues to mislead countless Americans about the integrity of our electoral institutions.
Or take Scott Jensen, the leading GOP candidate for governor in Minnesota. He cites crime as a top priority, hyping 2020 “riots” during which cities were “burned and looted.” Meanwhile, he has refused to say Trump lost in 2020 and even called for the jailing of Minnesota’s Democratic secretary of state, sneering that he might “look good in stripes.”
Calls for jailing members of the opposition for presiding over elections that yielded hated outcomes — Jensen baselessly suggested the Democrat had “gotten away” with a 2020 scam — is textbook lawlessness. It’s doubly galling coming from someone who piously invokes law and order.
Then there’s Adam Laxalt, the GOP nominee for Senate in Nevada. He recently hosted an event with Trump himself designed to showcase law-and-order toughness. Yet Laxalt lent support to the stolen-election lie, suggested voting in urban areas is suspect while claiming it’s “legitimate” in GOP areas, and dramatically downplayed Jan. 6, claiming “very few” people broke laws.