National Review, the Atlantic, and Phoenix Sun-Times on Joe Arpaio

National Review, the Atlantic, and Phoenix Sun-Times on Joe Arpaio August 26, 2017

National Review called Arpaio’s bizarre police state a “political mental ward” years ago.

The Atlantic wrote:

This man presided over a police force that violated the Constitution, intimidated political opponents by abusing his legal authority, misspent funds, saw an increase in crime, paid out millions in taxpayer dollars when his underlings brutally terrorized inmates.

And the Phoenix Sun-Times chronicle the sheer reign of criminality of this man:

So, naturally, Good White Conservative Christians are fanning out across the interwebz to praise our Dear Leader for pardoning him and lying through their teeth (for Jesus) that he was just persecuted for “upholding the law”. As I say, if you are still defending Trump’s lies at this point you no longer have the benefits of the doubt. You are an accomplice.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, a war hero with possibly terminal cancer whom the Draft Dodger-in-Chief ginned a mob into wishing for his death, writes:

No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders. The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.

A pardon is an acknowledgement of guilt. Arpaio has shown not a drop of contrition for the crimes of which he is guilty. But I predict that, as night follows day, Christian liars for Jesus will now begin the process of deliberately confusing pardon with contrition in order to shout at everybody that “Christianity is about forgiveness. We need to put all this in the past” and try to muscle us all into pretending that an outrage against justice has not been committed and that *we* are the truly guilty parties for not “letting it go”.

Nonetheless, an outrage has been committed. And it presages future outrages. It is a loud message to every one of the crooks and liars in his circle that they need fear nothing and need not cooperate with any investigations because Trump will pardon them if they lie or obstruct justice. It is the open transformation of the Executive branch into the Lawlessness Enforcement department, all in the service of a corrupt kingpin who uses his power capriciously.

And the loudest and most passionate supporters of all of this are white conservative Christians who dub themselves the Real Christians and Real Americans.


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