Chapter 11: Law and Disorder: Classroom Management, Discipline, and the Promise of Multicultural Education

“I am the law-and-order candidate,” President Trump declared during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention (Nunberg, 2016, para. 1). “Law and order” is a term that has been used by politicians for years, and it is one that begs two questions: Who is enforcing the law, and who needs order? Historians and political writers have reported that President Trump was recycling Richard Nixon’s playbook, and that “law and order” is coded language. Azari (2016) for instance, explained law and order could be defined as “disdain for those who question tradition and support for the use of force to keep order” (para. 10). Nunberg (2016) argued that Trump’s cry for law and order was to create the perception of a new crisis, and that it “weaves together assaults by those he calls radical Islamic terrorists, inner-city thugs and illegals” (para. 11). The political cry for law and order in 1968 and in 2016 was a rallying call for what Nixon called the “silent majority;” and was used to “represent a complex ecosystem of anxieties” (Zeitz, 2016, para. 21). Zeitz (2016) explains in 1968, when law and order was used: