{"id":27747,"date":"2026-04-30T17:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=27747"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:23:12","slug":"the-law-vs-tribal-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/04\/30\/the-law-vs-tribal-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law vs. Tribal Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>The Supremes eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, and the partisan flexibility of the law;<\/li>\n<li>King Charles visits while Trump claims America is not an idea but an inherited Anglo-Saxon culture;<\/li>\n<li>Heather Cox Richardson on the same point;<\/li>\n<li>Brief items about Trump&#8217;s ballroom obsession, someone who thinks the death penalty is a blessing, the administration penalizing disabled people who live with their families, someone who thinks LGBTQ protections are anti-Christian, a long list of thinks Trump is and Jimmy Kimmel is not, and how MAGA are repulsed by people who are different.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>What strikes me about the law, i.e. the judicial system, is how easily laws and principles and even past supreme court decisions, which presumably are established precedents, can be bent or even overturned toward the ideological preferences of the politicians and the justices and judges currently in power. (The law, while presuming to cite established precedents as if they were scientific conclusions, is actually nothing like science or mathematics.)<\/p>\n<p>More going back in time, and undoing progress made in previous generations.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/5754b2bf-5d21-4304-9fbd-0be7eef6d997.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=840\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slate, Richard L. Hasen, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/04\/scotus-voting-rights-section-two-ruling-history-worst-century.html\">The Supreme Court\u2019s Conservatives Just Issued the Worst Ruling in a Century<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;This evisceration of the Voting Rights Act requires us to take SCOTUS reform more seriously.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because the decision is transparently in support of the current administration&#8217;s naked support for white supremacy. This is why the decision is so cleanly split between the &#8216;conservative&#8217; justices and the &#8216;liberal&#8217; ones.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Wednesday\u2019s 6\u20133 party-line decision in <a href=\"https:\/\/electionlawblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/callais.pdf\"><em>Louisiana v. Callais<\/em><\/a> will go down in history as one of the most pernicious and damaging Supreme Court decisions of the past century. All six Republican-appointed justices on the court signed onto Justice Samuel Alito\u2019s opinion gutting what remained of the Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters, while pretending they were merely making technical tweaks to the act.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vox, Ian Millhiser, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/487363\/supreme-court-louisiana-callais-gerrymandering-alito-voting-rights-act\">The Voting Rights Act is all but dead. Prepare for maximum gerrymandering.<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Republican justices just abolished 40 years worth of law protecting against rigged maps.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/04\/vra-supreme-court-callais-decision\/686997\/\">Voters Can Be Disenfranchised Now<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Just say it\u2019s because they\u2019re Democrats.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>CNN, Joan Biskupic, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/04\/30\/politics\/john-roberts-voting-rights-act-race-protections\">John Roberts\u2019 effort to gut the Voting Rights Act is complete<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Robert Reich, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/the-supreme-court-republicans-makes\">The Supreme Court Republicans Make America Safe for White Republicans<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Their decision today is dishonest and shameful&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>About King Charles&#8217; visit.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/sZ2U4oOq2H2nHemBIIneNAax7lk=\/0x0:2880x1620\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/04\/2026_04_29_Donald_Trumps_Disturbing_Welcome_for_King_Charles\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/04\/trump-king-charles-speech-white-house\/686996\/\">Donald Trump\u2019s Disturbing Welcome for King Charles<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;At the White House, the president embraced the idea that the nation is an Anglo-Saxon one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>President Trump welcomed the British monarch King Charles III to the White House yesterday and gave a speech that, on its surface, expressed warmth between the two countries. But its true purpose was darker. Trump\u2019s speech stamped his imprimatur on an ascendant view of American history and politics\u2014one that is controversial even on the American right, and that walks up to the edge of white nationalism.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis Trump endorsed is that America is defined not by its founding values but by its Anglo-Saxon cultural and genetic heritage. This idea has radical consequences, some of which have already manifested under the administration.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s sentiment was unmistakable. \u201cLong before Americans had a nation or a constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed,\u201d he said, proceeding to depict the Founders not as rebels against the English crown but instead its loyal heirs: \u201cTheir veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And so on.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That line, asserting that America is not merely an idea, has become a clich\u00e9 among a faction on the right known as the national conservatives. When the natcons say this, as they do all the time, they are not merely making the obvious point that the United States is composed of a landmass and a population. They are advancing a series of associated ideas. They believe that America is the product of white, European settlers (a conviction they share, ironically, with left-wing critics); that Americanness is a genetic inheritance and therefore an identity immigrants cannot obtain (an idea conveyed by Trump\u2019s reference to Anglo-Saxon veins); and that, most controversially, the values articulated by the founding documents are less important than the natural rights of what the natcons call \u201cheritage Americans\u201d to rule the land in perpetuity.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, most Republicans would have considered this account of American history bizarre. &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Reagan said America is an idea. So did Bush. Since then Republicans are simply becoming more tribalistic and racist. All of this aligns with my notion that conservatives these days aren&#8217;t concerned with the principles of the Constitution (or what Jesus said) but with base, tribal thinking. Blood and soil, not shared values. But I don&#8217;t have a take about why is this happening. The increasing complexity of the world, perhaps? Or simple regression to the mean?<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Making the same point:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heather Cox Richardson<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/heathercoxrichardson.substack.com\/p\/april-29-2026\">April 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>King Charles and Queen Camilla are in the U.S. on a state visit, and in his speech welcoming them to the White House yesterday, Trump redefined the United States from a nation based on the principles of the Enlightenment, as it has historically been understood, to one based in the white nationalist ideas of blood and soil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLong before Americans had a nation or a constitution, we first had a culture, a character, and a creed,\u201d Trump said. \u201cFor nearly two centuries before the Revolution, this land was settled and forged by men and women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and\u2026Great Britain\u2019s distinctive sense of glory, destiny, and pride.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet again, this is about American conservatives regressing to primitive tribal values, and renouncing the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>King Charles spoke, invoking some of those ideas. Cox ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>King Charles urged the U.S. to \u201cignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking,\u201d and reminded his listeners that \u201cAmerica\u2019s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since Independence. The actions of this great Nation matter even more.\u201d He called for the U.S. and the U.K. to \u201crededicate ourselves to each other in the selfless service of our peoples and of all the peoples of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Appearing to miss the point completely, at about the time King Charles finished his speech, the official social media account of the White House posted a picture of Trump and King Charles with the caption \u201cTWO KINGS.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Trump is an ignorant, dangerous, moron.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Brief items.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/8622ed8a-1ff3-43f0-a76c-ff647b89ab47.jpeg?crop=1403%2C936%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=840\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Slate, Shrin Ali, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/04\/trump-white-house-ballroom-unitary-executive.html\">There\u2019s Something More Sinister Beneath Trump\u2019s Ballroom Obsession<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Subtitled: It\u2019s another manifestation of his theory of the presidency.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Trump has shown he has no interest in seeking real approval from Congress for anything on his agenda, adopting the <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/02\/trump-news-doge-elon-musk-federal-government-workers-fired.html\">&#8216;unitary executive&#8217; theory<\/a>, which holds that presidents singularly control everything within the executive branch. It\u2019s why Trump never bothered to get congressional approval before starting a war with Iran, capturing Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, or gutting federal agencies like the Education Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/continuing-the-reduction-of-the-federal-bureaucracy\/\">and others<\/a>. And he <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116326141687504578\">admitted as much<\/a>, wrongly proclaiming on Truth Social that congressional approval had never been given over construction projects at the White House.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In other words, he&#8217;s acting like a dictator.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I saw a cartoon on Facebook today showing a white couple sitting in a boiling cauldron in a jungle while two black natives said, Stop interfering with our religious expression! This is comparable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplefor.org\/rightwingwatch\/micah-beckwith-says-death-penalty-blessing\">Micah Beckwith Says The Death Penalty Is &#8216;A Blessing&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>He says this because&#8230; the condemned &#8220;is being given the opportunity &#8216;to be in the presence of Jesus&#8217; after they are executed.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Of *course* Republicans want to remove protections or government help from people they don&#8217;t like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Salon, Eli Hager, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/04\/29\/trump-administration-aims-to-penalize-disabled-adults-who-live-with-their-families-partner\/\">Trump administration aims to penalize disabled adults who live with their families<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Officials back rule to cut SSI benefits for recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>WWJD?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>JMG, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/04\/doj-all-biden-lgbtq-policies-were-anti-christian\/\">DOJ: All Biden LGBTQ Protections Were \u201cAnti-Christian\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li>So he&#8217;s defining Christians as explicitly anti-gay? Because of something Jesus said? I don&#8217;t think so.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!6L_2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9d2a6263-0537-43f0-b6aa-b5976d8b36b7_992x558.avif\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>John Pavlovitz, 28 Apr 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/johnpavlovitz.substack.com\/p\/patriotic-americans-actual-christians\">Patriotic Americans, Actual Christians, and Decent Humans Stand With Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>. Let me just quote a portion.<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Watching the Right assembling online with virtual torches and pitchforks, engaging in wild histrionics and performative pearl-clutching, while calling for the head of television host Jimmy Kimmel, one has to marvel at his rank-and-file\u2019s steadfast ability to defy reality.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s staggering when you compare the man they\u2019re crusading against and the one they\u2019re emotionally tethered to\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel isn\u2019t responsible for the deaths of countless people.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel isn\u2019t a court-adjudicated rapist.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel isn\u2019t a 34-count felon.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel didn\u2019t incite a violent insurrection at our nation\u2019s Capitol in an effort to overturn a free and fair election, harm members of Congress, and prevent a peaceful transfer of power.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump did.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s name isn\u2019t listed tens of thousands of times in the Epstein Files.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump\u2019s is.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel doesn\u2019t have dozens of credible sexual assault accusations.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump does.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel didn\u2019t threaten an entire civilization with destruction.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump did.<\/p>\n<p>Jimmy Kimmel didn\u2019t bomb a girl\u2019s school in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump has.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That&#8217;s half of it. You get the idea.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Again, this isn&#8217;t news, not a surprise, just another observation.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!Sewz!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F429e2f58-285f-4bfc-a8b1-39f1554b8d14_3000x2000.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bulwark, Jonathan V. Last, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/maga-has-a-eugenics-gene\">MAGA Has a Eugenics Gene<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Trump\u2019s movement is repulsed by people who are different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this is elementary tribalism, which humanity will have to overcome if it is to have a longer-term future (one that depends on coordinated effort by the entire human race to avoid existential risks).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One of the under-appreciated aspects of Trumpism is its aversion to\u2014what euphemism shall we employ?\u2014<em>dysgenic<\/em> types.<\/p>\n<p>Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/videos\/news\/politics\/2024\/07\/24\/trump-mocks-disability\/74531237007\/\">famously mocked a disabled reporter<\/a> in front of thousands of people and has a well-documented <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2023\/11\/general-mark-milley-trump-coup\/675375\/\">distaste<\/a> for disabled or disfigured soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>There is the MAGA movement\u2019s constant murmuring about racial purity\u2014advocating for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/07\/31\/heritage-american-jd-vance-online-right-phrase-00481724\">\u201cheritage Americans,\u201d<\/a> warning about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/11\/17\/1213746885\/trump-vermin-hitler-immigration-authoritarian-republican-primary\">\u201cvermin\u201d<\/a> infesting the country, voicing concerns about groups of people who are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141\">\u201cpoisoning the blood\u201d<\/a> of the nation with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/10\/07\/politics\/trump-undocumented-immigrants-bad-genes\/index.html?utm_term=17283849277618288bfe4c8aa&amp;utm_source=cnn_Five+Things+for+Tuesday%2C+October+8%2C+2024&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;bt_ee=1xmEnXXBdVMFYlWGTUFJi%2BbXWfmZtBptG9U%2FOFTiKti%2Bl4ftB8IyYgV79KSRxira&amp;bt_ts=1728384927764\">\u201cbad genes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is the obsession with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/press-releases\/supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-to-enforce-discriminatory-passport-policy\">erasing public acknowledgment<\/a> that trans people exist.<\/p>\n<p>There is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/autism-maha-and-the-face-of-god\">disgust at neurodivergence<\/a> and the view of autism as an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/press-room\/hhs-trump-kennedy-autism-initiatives-leucovorin-tylenol-research-2025.html\">\u201cepidemic\u201d<\/a> to be stamped out.<\/p>\n<p>And while everyone is paying attention to the big-ticket stuff\u2014the Iran war, the looming bond-market crisis, the Putinesque levels of corruption\u2014the administration has been quietly doing some soft eugenics.<\/p>\n<p>Let me tell you about \u201cthe most pro-life president\u201d in American history . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supremes eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, and the partisan flexibility of the law; King Charles visits while Trump claims America is not an idea but an inherited Anglo-Saxon culture; Heather Cox Richardson on the same point; Brief items about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/04\/30\/the-law-vs-tribal-priorities\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,90,18,54,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-conservatives","category-lunacy","category-politics","category-tribalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27747"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27827,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27747\/revisions\/27827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}