A camp counselor picks favorites by lauding some campers regardless of how ordinary or even counterproductive their conduct is, while ignoring or disparaging other campers’ valuable contributions. A referee takes sides by giving the benefit of the doubt to one team. And a human rights activist flouts the rights shared by all persons by expressing outrage at and even exaggerating or outright fabricating abuses perpetrated by one set of combatants while turning a blind eye to atrocities executed by the opposing combatants.
The same goes for the rule of law in America – that is, a system in which individuals are subject to well-established, general, and publicly promulgated rules that are equally enforced and impartially adjudicated. A group that defends the law’s integrity against threats from one party but remains silent while the rival party repeatedly abuses the law over the course of many years to consolidate power and harm political opponents politicizes an essential principle that transcends the differences between partisans.
