For decades the Republican Party has consistently supported its stance on “law and order” issues in terms of crimes, the sentencing of criminals and anarchic behavior at public rallies. Its most prominent failure on law and order came during President Richard Nixon’s second term when he was forced to resign the presidency during the sprawling Watergate scandal.
In the intervening 40 years or so the party adhered to its support of the doctrine.
Until they didn’t.
After a New York jury convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony charges last week, GOP politicians and others launched what is perhaps the most dishonest criticism of jurisprudence ever fueled by political angst. What many Americans feared came true. Many Republican politicians and others condemned the verdict with varying degrees of outrage. Many responded with withering criticisms of what they considered a repudiation of justice.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the trial was “a purely political exercise, not a legal one,” and dishonestly suggested that President Joe Biden “orchestrated the case.”