Last night, the self-designated party of "law and order" elected Greg Gianforte, a man who had just committed assault against a reporter, to Congress. This may seem strange at first glance, given that this party has spent so much of its energy criticizing various groups like Black Lives Matter for their alleged lawlessness, while at the same time excusing crimes, many of them violent, committed against immigrants, inmates, the poor, and women. It seems incongruous to try to square one with the other, and it's tempting to simply chalk it up to partisanship trumping ideology, but I think that there is a better explanation, and that is the distinction and often tension between the law and what is perceived by the majority as order.
See, the law grants sweeping protections to all people in the United States, often regardless of whether they are here legally, regardless of their own history with the law, and even against empowered and emboldened officialdom. But the shrinking white conservative majority in this country sees as their interest the standing order, the status quo where they go about their lives free of threat and suspicion, entitled to every opportunity that this country has to offer, oblivious to the threats faced by people not fortunate to be viewed as within the state's favor. And when people who do regularly face threat of violence stand up for themselves, no matter how orderly or lawful those stances are, the reaction from this group is often violent.
This is the true partisan divide in this country, and it is growing more so as the conservative white majority feels their dominance slipping away, and as the wealthy elites among them abandon the increasingly many poor within that group. All other issues, states' rights, small government, personal liberty, constitutionalism, religious freedom, are pretextual and tactical, designed to justify the white majority's place in power, but discarded as freely and easily as can be when they no longer serve that function. Order is maintained by ensuring the continued rule of the white conservative majority, and electing a Republican who assaults a reporter instead of a Democrat who does not helps to do that. Order, meaning the white conservative status quo, is maintained by electing a transparently corrupt and lawless President instead of a woman who might recognize the rights of people who aren't part of the majority.
As it stands right now, the Democrats are the party of Law, while the Republicans are the party of Order, and the distinction couldn't be more important.
See, the law grants sweeping protections to all people in the United States, often regardless of whether they are here legally, regardless of their own history with the law, and even against empowered and emboldened officialdom. But the shrinking white conservative majority in this country sees as their interest the standing order, the status quo where they go about their lives free of threat and suspicion, entitled to every opportunity that this country has to offer, oblivious to the threats faced by people not fortunate to be viewed as within the state's favor. And when people who do regularly face threat of violence stand up for themselves, no matter how orderly or lawful those stances are, the reaction from this group is often violent.
This is the true partisan divide in this country, and it is growing more so as the conservative white majority feels their dominance slipping away, and as the wealthy elites among them abandon the increasingly many poor within that group. All other issues, states' rights, small government, personal liberty, constitutionalism, religious freedom, are pretextual and tactical, designed to justify the white majority's place in power, but discarded as freely and easily as can be when they no longer serve that function. Order is maintained by ensuring the continued rule of the white conservative majority, and electing a Republican who assaults a reporter instead of a Democrat who does not helps to do that. Order, meaning the white conservative status quo, is maintained by electing a transparently corrupt and lawless President instead of a woman who might recognize the rights of people who aren't part of the majority.
As it stands right now, the Democrats are the party of Law, while the Republicans are the party of Order, and the distinction couldn't be more important.
