At the beginning of The Highest Law in the Land, I described a right-wing, “constitutional sheriff” rally (dubbed a Patriotic Social Gathering) in rural Nevada. There, I was surprised by the proliferation of Trump 2024 signs. This was just a couple of months after January 6, 2021. Joe Biden was inaugurated as president. After their failed coup and the uneventful inauguration, I figured that Trump supporters would…forget about it. To be clear, I didn’t think that they were done with the ideas – distrust of vaccines and science, a sense of grievance over the economic impact of COVID, fear of Black Lives Matter protests, anxiety about a world that was changing to suit urban elites (in their view) — but rather that they were done with the man. I mean, he lost, right? Nobody likes losers.
Alas, I was wrong. I was very wrong. I had no idea that those Trump 2024 signs were not wish-casting, they were prophecy. The ideas behind rural right-wing movements, including the constitutional sheriff movement, had coalesced under MAGA. The movement was the man, or the man was the movement. I can’t really tell.
The funny thing, to me, was that a lot of prominent figures in the constitutional sheriff movement weren’t necessarily big Trump supporters. Take Richard Mack. He just doesn’t really think any presidents are worth the time, but, he admitted, he was willing to see Trump win just to upset the libs. In fact, this notion – that it was worth electing Trump to see the smug elites work themselves into a lather – is perhaps an under-appreciate contribution to the 2024 presidential election results. What if the election was about a rejection of elite liberal values, the sort of decadence implicit in a four-year college degree and a job that pays well enough that a woman never has to get married?
In any event, many other political writers and thinkers will come up with hundreds of reasons why the 2024 election panned out the way it did. Was it Joe Biden’s decision not to stick to his promise to run for “only one term?” Was it the Democratic party’s decision to embrace the Chaney family, whom no one likes? (George W. Bush and the post-9-11 security state plus the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are immensely unpopular among the far-right.) Could we look to Christian nationalism? Outside dark money groups? Was it just Elon Musk? Was it the failure to take the Uncommitted movement seriously?
My greatest concern is that the left, especially the Democratic party, had decided to put their trust in law enforcement despite the fact that rank-and-file law enforcement agents are increasingly MAGA-pilled and members of far-right militia groups. Joe Biden promised to “fund the police,” and he did, to the tune of millions, with no limits on how the money was used or promises to pass comprehensive police reform. Kamala Harris was a prosecutor and ran as a “border cop.” The DNC featured two sheriffs who both railed about the need to arrest “bad hombres.”
What the Democrats have done is fund a Law Enforcement Baronial Class that will haunt us beyond the reach of the Trump administration. Cops have more tools at their disposal, more forms of surveillance, and permission to do basically whatever they want. Even still, Democrats are loathe to admit this mistake. We know who will pay – the same people who always do. Who will not pay are Trump and his people. The soon-to-be president was convicted of multiple felonies and will pardon most of the people who were prosecuted for January 6. How much more faith will Democrats put in law enforcement, knowing that they will never love them back?
Oof, that last paragraph.
"he was willing to see Trump win just to upset the libs. In fact, this notion – that it was worth electing Trump to see the smug elites work themselves into a lather – is perhaps an under-appreciate contribution to the 2024 presidential election results" -- I have been wondering this a LOT.