Why I am a West Coast Straussian

It is ordered, and by this Court declared; that every person within this Jurisdiction, whether Inhabitant or other shall enjoy the same justice and law that is general for this Jurisdiction which we constitute and execute one towards another, in all cases proper to our cognizance without partialities or delay.
Massachusetts, The Book of General Laws and Libertyes, "Body of Liberties" (1641)
quoted in William B. Allen, Let the Advice Be Good, 4.

This passage brings tears to my eyes because of its noble and simple beauty. These men aspired to render equal justice under law, a rare aspiration in this world, and one realized in few places today. "Have Faith in Massachusetts" said Calvin Coolidge, "In the general results, there is no place on earth where the people secure, in a larger measure, the blessings of organized government, and nowhere can those functions more properly be termed self-government."

values and riots

The voters were becoming quietly enraged by crime and disorder and by what they regarded as permissiveness on the part of institutional authority. Politicians who wanted to escape that rage should identify themselves with the forces of law and order. It was not necessary that they countenance ruthless acts of suppression, or even that they defend the police against the charges that had been made against them. Just that they show whose side they were on: the mugger, the looter, the sniper, the violent protester, or the law enforcer. If there was any doubt in the voters’ minds about that, all the magnanimity and progressivism in the world would not suffice to save the candidate. If the doubt was removed, the candidate was free to promote whatever liberal schemes he wished.
-- Harry McPherson (onetime LBJ aide)