https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUGPWzmvgJw

Transcript:

So my entire life I was raised to believe if nothing else the Republican party was the party of law and order

And honestly it was pretty hard to argue with

Most people hate crime and crave stability

So asking people to be more sympathetic toward lawb breakakers or skeptical of prosecutors or soft on punishment even if it was the right argument to make it was always difficult because the fact is that people hate criminals and Republicans owned that lane for decades starting with Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign through Reagan

through George HW Bush through George W

Bush and right now to today

But the fact is that Republicans didn't just hold the position of law and order

They built an entire identity around it

But you have to understand the reason why Republicans love law and order at the center of their identity is the same reason they want people to trust them with the economy and with foreign policy

It's not about crime data.

It's not about policies and it's not about politics

Their identity and their promise was built around psychological security

People need to feel their country is safe, their home is safe, and their paycheck is safe

And on all three counts, Republicans have held the throne my entire life

Not according to the data, but according to politics.

But then something has happened and I know a lot of people are starting to feel it even if they can't quite put the words to it

Consider that on his first day back in office, Donald Trump issued a blanket pardon to 1600 criminals

More than 600 of those rioters had convictions related to assault or obstructing police officers, including 170 who used a deadly weapon.

These were people mostly caught on camera who were convicted by real juries and sentenced by real judges

And Donald Trump called them hostages, called them patriots, and then pardoned all of them

Since then, at least 33 of those pardoned insurrectionists have been rearrested, charged, or sentenced for other crimes

Six with vile crimes related to children.

Five with illegal weapons possession

Two DUI cases ended with fatalities, but because pardons come with no recourse, no monitoring, and no parole, there's nothing anyone can do about it

The Party of Law and Order freed them all

Then there's what's happening in our streets

Not from immigrants, not from the alleged criminals Republicans have spent decades warning us about, but from federal agents operating with less oversight than we've seen in American history.

And I'm not just talking about Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Prey

Since January 2025, there have been at least 33 shootings involving immigration officers, resulting in nine deaths

And the Wall Street Journal has identified at least 13 instances of officers firing into civilian vehicles

Meanwhile, 2025 became the most deadly year for people being held in ICE detention facilities in more than two decades.

This is neither law nor order

This is just power without accountability

And then there's this crystallized image that for me ripples across the surface of the corrupt cesspool of Republican identity more clearly than anything else

And that's the image of Mark Wayne Mullen, the sitting United States senator who at a Senate hearing stood up at his chair with the intent to physically attack a witness before having to be yelled at by Bernie Sanders to sit down, which led the Senate Ethics Committee to conclude that Mullen advocated for the use of

physical violence as a means to resolve political disagreements

And that honor culture nut job is now Trump's new secretary to lead the Department of Homeland Security, the agency overseeing every law enforcement agency in the country

And as a result, here's what I keep coming back to

Republicans didn't just abandon the brand of law and order.

They dragged it out of its home in its underwear through a drift of snow and beat it viciously before sending it to a detention facility with a measles outbreak before deporting it to CCOT and pardoning everyone involved

And in the place where that brand once stood, at least for American people, the brand that once represented the stability that Americans crave, has been replaced with a hollow chasm of existential dread.

And if that's where you are with me, you're not crazy

It's why a Maris poll found that 54% of Americans believe ICE has gone too far

It's why satisfaction with the direction of the country is only at 24% and why only 13% of young Americans believe this country is headed in the right direction.

That feeling of instability that you're carrying around right now, you're not imagining it and you're not alone

But here's what I want you to hold on to

This moment, as chaotic and frightening as it might feel, is also a clearing

For 60 years, the Republican party wrapped the promise of psychological security in the messaging of law and order.

All in service of avoiding the more honest conversation, about what actually makes communities safe, about what really drives crime, and about the true prerequisites for stability

Because for Republicans, fear is easier to sell than investment

Punishment was easier to promise than prosperity

And Trump didn't just expose the hypocrisy.

He burned the whole thing to the ground

And now the fact is you cannot rebuild a myth once people have seen the lies behind it

Which presents us with an opportunity to not only unravel the pervasive lie that from the military to the economy to law and order, the Republican party is the trusted cautious hand to guide us when we crave stability most, but to replace it with a new truth.

The truth that there is a durable path to safety and psychological security

And it's built on people having enough

Communities being invested in rather than just policed in the stability that comes from economic prosperity, not fear

That argument has always been true

And it's always been there for us to take

But now, for the first time in my entire life, the other side can't drown it out.

That cracking you're hearing right now, that is 60 years of mythology breaking apart

Do not let it go by

Embrace it, then use