By Bill Mefford
This week I am examining the lies that are at the core of a crumbling, yet still deadly conservatism. These lies have long existed and predate the trump era, though he has done far more than anyone to incarnate these lies in his actions and words. Lies are at the core of trump’s being.
Lie #1 is that conservatives are pro-life (they aren’t).
Lie #2 is that conservatives believe in public safety (they don’t).
And Lie #3 is that conservatives stand for law and order (they absolutely do not).
It is more than ironic and not hardly coincidental that the two administrations bellowing about law order - the current one and Nixon’s - are the most illegal and corrupt administrations in history. But to compare Nixon and trump at this point is a completely unfair to Nixon. Let’s look at just some of the illegal acts of the guy occupying the White House for the next few months:
trump has repeatedly obstructed justice
he fired Comey for refusing to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn,
he has repeatedly bullied jurors and judges who served in the numerous trials of his associates,
trump tried to fire Robert Mueller but was stopped by White House lawyer Don McGahn.
trump regularly breaks the emoluments clause in the Constitution by profiting off his office
his hotel in DC regularly hosts foreign diplomats seeking favors from his administration,
he has had military leaders and Vice President Pence and his entourage stay at his failing hotel in Scotland,
he had his Ambassador to the UK try to get England to get the British Open golf tournament to be held at his Scottish golf course,
he has refused to pursue justice for a murdered US citizen journalist at the hands of Saudi Arabia because Saudi Sheiks stay at his hotels,
China approved multiple trademarks for his family’s brands while negotiating trade policies,
trump tried to get the G7 meeting to be hosted at his failing Dural golf club in Florida.
He has repeatedly solicited foreign influence in US elections
he called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails on July 27, 2016 (which they did proving his campaign’s collusion with Russia),
Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with Russian officials to collude on the campaign,
his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, colluded with the Russian Ambassador by promising to drop Obama’s sanctions,
Paul Manafort and Rick Gates met with Konstantin Kilimnik, likely a Russian spy, multiple times in the summer of 2016 to provide him with internal campaign polling data detailing the trump campaign’s Midwestern strategy,
trump used U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 elections,
he illegally withheld $400 million dollars of military aid to Ukraine and in a call with the President of Ukraine, asked them to “do us a favor” by investigating Joe Biden’s family,
trump urged China to investigate the Bidens
And there is so much more - this is a very partial list and look at how long it is! This does not include trying to persecute his political opponents, or violating the due process rights of immigrants, or flagrantly violating campaign finance laws, or violating the Hatch Act which they are doing this entire convention. This administration breaks laws as often as some of us put on socks.
And the response of the law and order conservatives to this corruption and lawlessness? Silence. Absolutely no concern for most if not all the items listed above by Republican members of Congress. They don’t care about law and order because they know that creating chaos means that some of their criminal behavior will go unnoticed. They have managed to convince a significant part of the American public that they have more to fear from the very isolated violent protests that have occurred in response to police lynchings of Black people rather than the incessant criminality by this administration every day; criminality that has enormous impacts on how our tax dollars are spent. The precedents created by this administration are absolutely devastating to any semblance of building a truly just society and there has been no push back whatsoever by those who continually to proclaim a love for law and order.
I do not doubt conservatives are faithful to order - as long as that order sustains their elitism and a crushing of the masses, but they have no love whatsoever for obeying the law. None. The hypocrisy is stunning. They love to point to the riots (which are few and far between), but they have done nothing to address the epidemic of police lynchings, gun violence, or perhaps the greatest epidemic of them all: trump corruption.
So, when we hear trump and his mindless, sycophantic followers talk about the need for law and order remember that they are projecting their own criminality onto society. The law and order they seek would only result in their own incarceration.