On June 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the police officers who defended the U.S. House of Representatives against a violent insurrectionist mob on January 6. It was a 406-21 vote, and the 21 House members who voted against it were Republicans. Meanwhile, in Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson recently signed into law a bill that calls for fines of police departments if they enforce federal gun laws. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial board, in a blistering editorial published on June 20, cites these controversies as examples of the fact that the GOP has no business calling itself the “law and order party.”
“It was more than half a century ago that Richard Nixon successfully branded the GOP as the ‘law and order’ party, creating a political banner that has since been wielded, very effectively, by generations of Republicans,” the Post-Dispatch’s editorial board explains. “It was infused with some hypocrisy from the start — Nixon would ultimately be driven from the White House for his crimes in office — but in principle, at least, it aligned with a central tenet of conservatism: that respect for the law provides the restraint of passions that is necessary for society to thrive. So how on Earth did that Republican Party become the one we see now?”
The Post-Dispatch’s editorial board goes on to slam the 21 far-right House Republicans who voted against giving the Congressional Gold Medal to the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, including Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona. Other Trumpistas who voted against the bill included Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Continue reading.