The Party of Law and Order

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Last Thursday a jury of twelve New Yorkers decided Donald J. Trump was guilty of 34 felonies. After a lifetime of cheating, stealing, lying, manipulating, and generally being a wretched, reprehensible excuse of a human being, Trump was finally held accountable for his actions.

Since then we have been treated to wall-to-wall nonstop wails of outrage from Trump over the unfairness of being treated like any other American citizen. Even more amazing are the wails of outrage from Republicans. Amazing, because I’m so old I can remember when Republicans claimed to be the party of Law and Order.

Law and Order

The Republican Party has been, since at least the Nixon Administration, the self-professed “Party of Law and Order.” Republicans claim to be “tough on crime,” promoting and creating harsh penalties for “law breakers.” Their mantra has been “do the crime do the time.” In the eyes of any self-professed Republican, Democrats are “weak on crime,” “coddling law-breakers,” and willing to let people get murdered on the streets rather than putting criminals behind bars.

So, how do Republicans live up (down) to their law and order mantra?

Handy Reference Chart

This chart was created in September 2018, so doesn’t take into account Trump’s later crimes and two impeachments.

Chart created by DailyKos contributor RoyalScribe, “UPDATED: Comparing Presidential Administrations by felony arrests and convictions (as of 9/17/2018)“

Wayback Machine

Following up the handy reference chart, here’s a quick synopsis of Presidential greatest hits.

Richard Nixon / Gerald Ford

Richard “I’m not a crook” Nixon resigned after being told he would be impeached for Watergate. His un-elected Vice President Gerald Ford immediately pardoned Nixon for crimes he wasn’t yet convicted of. So the nation could “heal.” Ford himself was only VP, then president, because Nixon’s first VP Spiro Agnew resigned after being indicted for accepting bribes.

Jimmy Carter

Boring. Even Republicans of that era couldn’t find anything to accuse him of.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan forever graced us with “Welfare Queens” and “Strapping Young Buck,” and also gave us innumerable law-breaking scandals galore. Reagan’s Law and Order administration capped off with the Iran-Contra Scandal, a massively illegal operation for which no one ever paid a serious penalty. Mostly due to…

George H. W. Bush

Republican president George H.W. Bush lied to investigators about his involvement in Iran-Contra before his election. Then, during his short four years in office pardoned or granted clemency to key people involved in Iran-Contra. Which effectively shut down any further investigations and probably saved Bush’s hide along with some friends.

Bill Clinton

Democratic President Bill Clinton had pretty big law-breaking shoes to fill after Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and H. W. Bush. Which he did, by gracing us a salacious affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. Given the Republican’s laser focus on Law and Order, the Republican-controlled congress did impeach him over this affair. In his House trial, 223 Republicans voted for impeachment.

George W. Bush

Looking at the list of scandals in the Bush Junior administration, it seems Republican president G. W. Bush saw all the law-breaking stuff Reagan got away with and said “hold my beer.” Bush Jr also lied America into a war with Iraq. After failing to defend us against the 9/11 attacks and getting us into a retaliation war with Afghanistan.

Obama Era

Then we come to Democratic President Barrack Obama. Once again, as a Democrat Republicans knew he just couldn’t be trusted. Because Republican’s own the whole “Law and Order” brand. Obama did prove Democrats were shifty, scheming, underhanded, devious criminals, by wearing a tan suit to a press conference.

Donald Trump Era

Republican president Donald Trump’s entire presidential campaign was based upon chanting “Lock Her Up”⁴ over Hillary Clinton’s emails. Which, after several years of investigations by the FBI, various special investigators, and Republican congressmen, proved – that she committed no crimes.

Trump’s era was capped by two impeachments. No Republicans voted for impeachment in his first House trial of corruptly withholding aid to Ukraine. Only ten voted for impeachment in his second House trial to overthrow the US government in an auto-coup.

Convicted Felon

As of Thursday evening, May 30, 2024, Trump became the first President in American history to be a convicted felon. So, the Republican Party of Law and Order has been busy condemning him and demanding his end his presidential campaign, right? Yeah, that is pretty funny.

Since Thursday evening we have been treated to non-stop screams of Republican outrage over holding Donald Trump accountable for violating state felony laws. None of these talking heads have ever claimed Trump is innocent. Their entire demand is that in a country committed to Law and Order, Trump should not be held accountable for committing crimes.

Who They Are

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. There is nothing more or less to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.

Frank Wilhoit

Every person presently excusing Trump’s law-breaking behavior, has laid bare the remaining tattered threads of the “Law and Order” party. They care only about holding political power by whatever means necessary. They care nothing for the traditions, responsibilities, and trappings of a Democratic society.

These are not serious people, and should be ostracized, minimized, and ignored.

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1. Through September 17, 2018 [↩]
2. Numbers in brackets are Foreign Nationals [↩]
3. Foreign Nationals [↩]
4. As of today, Trump is claiming that he never led chants of “Lock Her Up” during his 2016 presidential campaign. [↩]