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This is part two of two on how I think I cracked the code on “law and order” in America. 

 

As I wrote yesterday, everyone, or at least everyone who is both rational and loves this country, believes in the basic principles of our nation. For example, we all agree there needs to be law and order. No one argues, “No we don’t want law and order.” 

 

But the divisions get really interesting and even more pronounced in differences when it comes down to constitutional rights which is why the sides seemingly flipped their respective positions on the 2nd Amendment after the Minneapolis shootings. (Both Trump and Pirro posited serious restrictions on guns.) Let’s look at the Preamble which is the key provision for the entire Constitution that we all revere and agree should guide us:

 

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." 

 

Progressives put the strongest emphasis from the Preamble on “establish Justice” and “promote the general Welfare.” Conservatives, on the other hand, put the strongest emphasis from the Preamble on “insure domestic Tranquility” and “secure…our Posterity.” 

 

We want justice, right! Due process for everyone, here legally or not, including a phone call, a lawyer, warrants signed by a judge, a trial. That is consistent with our Constitution. 

 

They want order and to secure posterity, right! There aren’t enough prosecutors or immigration judges to process tens of thousands of cases each month. So, it’s only fair that if someone came here illegally, they should be gone. Full stop. 

 

Now conservatives have a legitimate beef with progressives violating the First Amendment Right to Free Speech on a few college campuses. You may recall in 2023 and 2024 where some colleges refused to allow certain speakers to present on their campus. But put this in perspective of progressives having their First Amendment rights not only to free speech but to religion and petitioning their government for grievances being violated in entire states. And both obviously and blatantly Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights against illegal searches and seizures as well as rights to an attorney, a trial, and any other due process have been nullified nationwide when it comes to what ICE is doing.

 

So, for those keeping score, progressives violate the Constitution on a few campuses while conservatives violate the Constitution in a bevy of states as well as nationally. I’d say one side is complying with the “law” part of “law and order” a helluva lot more than the other. 

 

Btw this tension between “law” and “order” has existed since our country began. In the recent past, after 9/11, it has been liberty vs. security. Going all the way back to our nation’s founding it was small state liberals versus large state conservatives.