“Samsel is the 2nd Kan. lawmaker to be arrested this year. [A former] Senate Majority Leader … was charged w/ felony eluding & fleeing from police and also faces misdemeanor charges of drunk & reckless driving.”
Republicans aren’t sending us their best. kansascity.com/news/politics-…
Republicans aren’t sending us their best. kansascity.com/news/politics-…
Joking about Giuliani aside, I’m dead serious when I say the GOP itself presents a clear example — a clear *negative* example — of the broken windows theory of order maintenance.
https://twitter.com/ggreeneva/status/1387503318361116684
For years, the GOP has chosen to turn a blind eye to the broken windows in its political edifice — ignoring shady to flagrantly unlawful behavior by Roy Moore, Gerry Falwell, Jr., Donald Trump, Denny Hastert, Jack Abramoff, Duncan Hunter, Matt Gaetz …
Folks, it’s a long list.
Folks, it’s a long list.
To quote the pioneering essay on the broken windows theory: “one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing. … [S]erious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked.”theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Giuliani rose at a time when our self-presumed betters imposed a zero-tolerance, broken-windows view on the rest of society.
What turns out to seem true: those same elites grew accustomed to excusing misbehavior in their own ranks — and succumbed to moral decay themselves.
What turns out to seem true: those same elites grew accustomed to excusing misbehavior in their own ranks — and succumbed to moral decay themselves.
What we have now is a GOP that resembles a magnet for deviant behavior — from Trump himself, the erstwhile maestro of backstage peeping at the Miss Teen USA pageant … buzzfeednews.com/kendalltaggart…
… to credibly-accused pedophiles like Roy Moore and Matt Gaetz, pederasts such as former Speaker Denny Hastert, pederast-adjacent politicians like Jim Jordan … cnn.com/2020/03/06/pol…
… down the line to state lawmakers such as the representative arrested in Kansas for kicking a student in the groin — or the lawmakers in Idaho who, as they closed ranks in April around a Republican representative accused of rape, doxxed his accuser. eastidahonews.com/2021/04/suppor…
What we see now, I’d argue, is the terminus of a devolution described by Chris Hayes — in which “crime,” in the Republican mind”, was no longer “defined by a specific offense. Crime is defined by who commits it.” nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opi… 
Blinded by a self-exonerating worldview to the crime within its midst, the GOP has been overrun by figures who seem unbound by any recognizable code of behavior.
It’s a bizarre degeneration to watch — but here we are. lithub.com/the-gop-lost-i…
It’s a bizarre degeneration to watch — but here we are. lithub.com/the-gop-lost-i…
Getting back to the Kansas legislator, I regret that I must once again say this: “yikes.”
https://twitter.com/beyerstein/status/1388585397148602372
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