An Alliance on Criminal Justice Reform?

There’s a certain class of pundits– not even centrists, really, often just self-loathing liberals– who invariably try to find space to build bridges between Left and Right on issues where there might be some common ground. Foreign policy is one of these areas (witness the ongoing catastrophe of the Quincy Institute, still committed to apologizing for Russian imperialism because military-industrial complex blah blah), and criminal justice reform is another. Scott ably dealt with the former; Republicans are for Restraint only in the very narrow sense that the United States should increase the defense budget, bomb people more lethally, and stand aside when right wing authoritarians invade their neighbors. Sohrab Amari isn’t a Restrainer; he’s just waiting around for the next group of appropriate people to bomb, in no small part because violence is at the core of how the right wing thinks about foreign policy.

Zack Beauchamp reminds us that the same dynamic exists on the issue of criminal justice reform:

In the span of roughly a year, [Nayib Bukele] the 41-year-old leader has declared a state of emergency, suspended civil rights protections, detained tens of thousands of citizens indefinitely without charge, built a new mega-prison made up of cells that cram 100 people in each, and packed the country’s highest court with his picks — who then promptly changed electoral rules to allow him to run again in 2024.

Salvadoran human rights advocates are sounding the alarm about democracy’s death, and the Biden administration has sanctioned key members of his government.

The response on the American right has been strikingly different. The authoritarian rhetoric, brash right-wing policies, and loud social media presence have captured the imagination of a small but influential group of American conservatives. In the past year, leading figures in MAGA world — including Tucker Carlson, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone — have praised Bukele, and even instructed Americans to learn from his example.

Among the things Bukele’s new right-wing fans like most about him are his harsh criminal justice policies. The Salvadoran murder rate, once one of the highest in the world, has plummeted during Bukele’s time in power (though it should be noted it was already falling before he came into office). The gangs that have long brutalized El Salvador’s civilians, most notably MS-13 and Barrio 18, seem weaker. Polls show that Bukele is stratospherically popular, with independent surveys showing favorability ratings in the 80s and even 90s.

The Koch brothers have thrown lots of money at criminal justice reform over the years, but it has barely moved the needle among actual right wingers on the extent and viciousness of the penal state. Conservatives want more people sent to prison (usually brown people although anyone will do in a pinch) and want the prison system to be more violent and more retributive. It’s a dynamic right now in the Kentucky GOP primary, as Kelly Craft continues to assail the front-running Attorney General Daniel Cameron for being soft on crime.

The Republican Party continues to radicalize, and the median voter dynamics that would push it towards moderation do not, for a variety of reasons, appear to be operative. It may seem sensible to try to build bridges here and there on specific issues, but the seemingly sophisticated, policy-relevant parts of the party are always going to yield to the (much larger) part of the party that simply hates liberals and wants to see them destroyed. It’s a fool’s game.