There’s been a bit of an uproar over far-right Rep Clyde’s (R-GA) behavior yesterday towards law enforcement:
That dynamic was on full display in the Capitol Wednesday as D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a concussion and heart attack while fending off the Jan. 6 mob, visited the Hill seeking meetings with the 21 House Republicans who voted against a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to police officers for their service during the attack. Fanone says freshman Rep. Andrew Clyde — the Georgia Republican who recently downplayed the insurrection by comparing it to a ”normal tourist visit” — refused to shake his hand after the officer introduced himself in an elevator. [Politico]
This has led prominent Democratic Rep Swalwell (D-CA) to ask a question:
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), one of the House’s impeachment managers during Trump’s second trial, was quick to seize on the interaction, tweeting “that to honor Trump, @housegop will dishonor the police.”
“It’s hard to accuse Democrats of defunding the police when you are dishonoring the police,” Swalwell said in an interview. “It makes me wonder: Was there prior support [in the GOP] for law enforcement? Or just phony political pandering? Because when the rubber meets the road, they’re choosing Trump over the cops.”
Beyond this and GOP refusal to recognize white supremacy as a real threat to the United States over the last couple of decades, there’s not really much evidence in support of an affirmative response. Why?
Because the Republican Party has been madly careening to the right over those years. There’s no doubt as to this contention; FiveThirtyEight even measured it a few years ago. If anything, we’re entering the terminal stage now with the rise to prominence of Representatives Gohmert, Gosar, Clyde, Greene, Boebert, Gaetz, and several others, just in the House.
Those they replaced, and their staffs, have often left the Party or do not participate in Party processes and policy formation as the abyss separating the one group from the other has yawned larger and larger.
The rightward inclination of the younger, newer members also means an inclination towards violence and away from democracy; this puts them at odds with the police, at least those members who are not already of their temperament. Add in the spice of contempt that so many of these “new Republicans” have, and it’s no surprise they do not support law enforcement.
But those Republicans they replaced? I tend to think they did support law enforcement, perhaps strongly in many cases. But not today’s Republicans. The police are now on the front lines, opposing their ambitions. They may try to charm the police, as they did in the previous election, but I think it’s becoming clear that the police must find support elsewhere.
Hey, boys! Some Grecian mariners in, errr, blue!
And that, of course, is a problem. This may be another iteration of the two monsters of old Greek myth, Scylla and Charybdis, a deeply suspicious Democratic Party on one side and a hostile Republican Party on the other, that will come together to grind and reform or destroy the police. We’ve been seeing this in the reports of broken morale, early retirements, and extended medical leaves at various police departments in the wake of the George Floyd murder-inspired protests, and the concurrent riots; I phrase it that way because, while the protests are more or less peaceful, outside of Portland, OR, and the ideology homogenuous among the protesters, again with an exception in Portland, the rioters have been a mixed bag, with the FBI seeking at least one far-right instigator who encouraged the rioting by the black community.
The results of the this Grecian crushing of law enforcement is in the hands of law enforcement, really: will they assent to reformation in hopes of retaining a position of prestige in the community, or will they stubbornly cling to old ways and loyalties? The recent sudden resignation of the local police union president here in the Twin Cities might suggest they’re taking the constructive former option, as President Krull (I kid you not) was definitely of the old order.
Rep Swalwell’s question may have been more significant than he realizes.
