Law and Order

Fred Siegel, Urban Historian and Liberal Turned Law-and-Order Conservative, Dies at 78

Siegel's work lamented what he saw as the failure of liberal regimes to safeguard urban quality of life and lambasted the indulgence of rioting. Those views led him to support Rudolph Giuliani's mayoral administration and remain relevant to discussions of social disorder in cities today. 

Why It's No Contradiction for Trump to Demand Illegal Actions to Defend "Law and Order"

by Lawrence B. Glickman

Since Reconstruction's overthrow, calls for "law and order" have imagined the former as a tool for enforcing a particular vision of the latter, usually in the form of white-dominated racial hierarchy.

Larry Krasner and the Limits of "Law and Order"

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Pennsylvania Republicans have launched a futile effort to impeach the reformist Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, defying local democracy to try to score political points through a backlash exploiting white voters' fears of crime. 

Why American Christians "Back the Blue" so Fervently

by Aaron Griffith

Evangelicals within police forces and in the public at large have been encouraged to understand a scriptural mandate for police authority that often short-circuits consideration of other Christian obligations for justice, argues a historian of evangelical attitudes to law and order. 

Trump Fuels March Toward Fascism With “Anarchist Jurisdictions” Edict

by Mark Bray

The declaration is part of Trump's efforts to divide the nation into the loyal and disloyal.   

Trump’s Law-and-Order Campaign Relies on a Historic American Tradition of Racist and Anti-Immigrant Politics

by Austin Sarat

"Throughout this nation’s history, appeals to law and order have been as much about defending privilege as dealing with crime. They have been used in political campaigns to stigmatize racial, ethnic and religious groups and resist calls for social justice made by, and on behalf of, those groups."

Trump’s 2020 Playbook Is Coming Straight From Southern Enslavers

by Elizabeth R. Varon

In arguing that radical protesters endanger U.S. law and order, Trump is echoing the attacks leveled by Southern enslavers against abolitionists.

The “Law and Order” Backlash Against Biden Was a Mirage

Donald Trump's "law and order" campaign message has failed to gain significant traction, which should put lazy comparisons to 1968 out to pasture. 

Trump, Vicar of Fear and Violence

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow writes that Trump is just the latest in a long line of American politicians who have stoked racist fears for advantage. 

Even After Their Fearmongering Proves Wrong, Republicans Keep At It. Here’s Why.

by Lawrence B. Glickman

Trump's politics of fear are an extension of reactionary political rhetoric that dates back to the effort by right-wing leaders to argue that New Deal programs would lead to totalitarianism. 

Trump and Biden Ready to Refight 1968

Neither campaign can control the events — or root causes — driving America’s summer of unrest. But they both want to control the narrative.

Donald Trump’s Message is Falling Flat Because it is Outdated

by A. K. Sandoval-Strausz

Our cities and suburbs look and feel very different than they did in the depths of the urban crisis in the late 1960s. That’s one reason Trump’s attempt to revive the law-and-order playbook of that era has fallen flat.

The Disgrace of Donald Trump

by Sean Wilentz

Trump wants to copy Richard Nixon's "law and order" appeals, but may end up echoing Herber Hoover's violent crushing of the Bonus March movement. 

Riots Helped Elect Nixon in 1968. Can Trump Benefit From Fear and Loathing Too?

According to New York University historian Timothy Naftali, Trump's mimicry of Nixon's '68 campaign is "based upon a fundamental misreading of history."

2020 Is Not 1968. It May Be Worse.

by Niall Ferguson

The Hoover Institution Senior Fellow suggests that the current political climate--a reelection campaign amid multiple national crises--has both similarities and differences from 1968. 

Explaining the Insurrection Act of 1807 and Looking Back on Nixon’s Law & Order Campaign (Podcast)

Hear from historian Rick Perlstein on the history of Nixon's Law and Order Campaign.

Five Reasons ‘Law and Order’ Rhetoric Might not Work as Well in 2020 as in 1968

by Max Boot

The “Southern strategy” could work again this year, but there are at least five reasons to believe it might not be as potent as in the past.

Law And Order Won’t Help Trump Win Reelection

by Kevin M. Kruse

The call for “law and order” is a complaint that those tasked with upholding the law and maintaining order have failed at the job and need to be replaced.

You Can’t Be the ‘President of Law and Order’ if You Thrive on Chaos

by Jamelle Bouie

We should be aware of the past — we should understand the processes that produced our world — but it shouldn’t be a substitute for thinking. We are not them, and now is not then.

The Militarization of the US-Mexico Border is Not a New Idea

by Aaron Brown

It started with Nixon.