Trump's Arpaio pardon is fascist

Of course, Arpaio was not doing his job. His job was to enforce the law; instead, he broke it. He decided that he was the arbiter of right and wrong, not the judiciary or legislature. Never mind the Constitution and its delegation of powers to the judiciary. Sheriff Joe’s opinions take precedence.

And perhaps worst of all, Arpaio decided that on the basis of ethnocentric nationalism: because undocumented immigrants are a threat to society, he, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, must take the law into his own hands. The howling mob at Trump’s Phoenix rally doesn’t indicate some silent majority of good Americans. It showed us a bloodthirsty, nativist crowd of ultra-patriotic, un-American radicals with no respect for our democratic institutions. (Let us not forget the cheers when Trump derogated the free press also.) It showed us people are whipped up into an ethno-nationalist frenzy. It showed us exactly why the rule of law is such an important bulwark against tyranny, whether of the individual or the mob.