Whose Law, Whose Order?
The face of lawlessness and disorder in America
W.J. Astore
Along with being a self-styled wartime president (in a totally incompetent attempt to contain COVID-19 that has cost tens of thousands of American lives), Donald Trump now claims to be the "LAW & ORDER" president (the all-caps echoes his tweet on the subject).
But whose law and whose order?
Trump is lawless. He had peaceful protesters gassed, including Episcopal clergy, just so he could pose with a bible in front of a church. And, by the way, mixing religious law with civil law is a practice the radical right allegedly condemns (they always cite Sharia law here), but not when the holy book is their bible. By the way, what was the Democratic response to Trump's shameless bible stunt? Nancy Pelosi got out a bible, only she read from hers. Great "opposition," Pelosi.
Again, whose law and whose order. Order imposed by violence and weaponry, non-lethal or otherwise, isn't order. It's tyranny. And the law in America seems to be what the rich and powerful say it is.
I come back to a crucial point made by Matt Taibbi:
You don’t elect politicians to commit crimes; you elect politicians to make your crimes legal. That is the whole purpose of the racket of government.
So, what is the law in America? That which has been defined as legal by politicians who are bought -- who follow the orders of their paymasters.
That's the kind of "law and order" Trump is talking about. The law of the already privileged and the order of the fist. And it's also why so many people are fed up, so many people are protesting, and so many people want real change.