Soft on the rule of law
As sheriff of Maricopa rejecting the rule of law: County, What Mr. Arpaio brought to Ariz., Joe Arpaio Maricopa, and what the engaged in blatant president of the United racial discrimination. States has just endorsed, His officers systematically was fascism, American targeted Latinos, often style. arresting them on spurious So how did we get to this charges and at least sometimes point? beating them up when Mr. Trump’s motives are they questioned those easy to understand. For one charges. thing, Mr. Arpaio, with his
Once Latinos were arrested, racism and authoritarianism, bad things happened really is his kind of guy. to them. Many were sent to For another, the pardon is a Tent City, which Mr. Arpaio signal to those who might be himself proudly called a tempted to make deals with “concentration camp,” the special investigator as where they lived under brutal the Russia probe closes in conditions. on the White House: Don’t
And when he received worry, I’ll protect you. court orders to stop these Finally, standing up for practices, he simply ignored white people who keep them, which led to his eventual brown people down pleases conviction — after decades Mr. Trump’s base, whom in office — for contempt he’s going to need more of court. But he had than ever as the scandals friends in high places, indeed creep closer and the big policy in the highest of places. wins he promised keep We now know that Donald not happening. Trump tried to get the But the Trump base of angry Justice Department to drop white voters is a distinct the case against Mr. Arpaio, minority in the country as a a clear case of attempted obstruction whole. Furthermore, those of justice. And voters have always been when that ploy failed, Mr. there. Fifteen years ago, Trump, who had already writing about the radicalization suggested that Mr. Arpaio of the GOP, I suggested was “convicted for doing his the hard core of angry job,” pardoned him. voters was around 20
By the way, about “doing percent of the electorate; his job,” it turns out that that still seems like a reasonable Mr. Arpaio’s officers were guess. too busy rounding up What makes it possible brown-skinned people and for someone like Mr. Trump investigating Barack to attain power and hold it is Obama’s birth certificate to the acquiescence of people do other things, like investigate who aren’t white supremacists, cases of sexually who sort-of kind-of believe abused children. Priorities! in the rule of law, but
Let’s call things by their are willing to go along with proper names here. Mr. Arpaio racists and lawbreakers if it is, of course, a white supremacist. serves their interests. But he’s more There have been endless than that. There’s a word for reports about the low-education political regimes that round white voters who went up members of minority overwhelmingly for Mr. groups and send them to Trump last November. But concentration camps, while he wouldn’t have made it over the top without millions of votes from well-educated Republicans who — despite the media’s orgy of false equivalence or worse (emails!) — had no excuse for not realizing what kind of man he was.
Given the powers we grant to the president, who in some ways is almost like an elected dictator, giving the office to someone likely to abuse that power invites catastrophe. The only real check comes from Congress, which retains the power to impeach; even the potential for impeachment can constrain a bad president. But Republicans control Congress; how many of them besides John McCain have offered full-throated denunciations of the Arpaio pardon?
The answer is, very few. Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, had a spokesman declare that he “does not agree with this decision” — not exactly a ringing statement. Yet Mr. Ryan did better than most of his colleagues, who have said nothing at all. (Sen. Pat Toomey did criticize the Arpaio pardon in a town hall meeting Thursday.)
This bodes ill if, as seems all too likely, the Arpaio pardon is only the beginning: We may well be in the early stages of a constitutional crisis. Does anyone consider it unthinkable that Mr. Trump will fire Robert Mueller, and try to shut down investigations into his personal and political links to Russia? Does anyone have confidence that Republicans in Congress will do anything more than express mild disagreement with his actions if he does?