mauricechammah

Specifically, Richard Mack told me: “I was surprised by some of that, and pleased...The people of the country are getting behind us.”

I just want to point out here that a startling number of sheriffs in our survey said antifa was responsible for January 6th, even as the news emerged that some sheriffs themselves were present at the rally before the invasion of the capitol.

It is strange, isn't it: I've met German prosecutors who were stunned that we elect our district attorneys and judges. The answer is different for each of these jobs. With sheriffs, we began electing them in the colonies as a way to undermine the crown's power: originally they had been appointed by kings. Generally, with all these roles, you hear the argument that it makes them more responsive to their constituents, which is, of course, debatable, and there have been movements to either abolish sheriffs (this happened in Connecticut) or make them appointed (which happens in a few states).

I don't know if the idea is necessarily right-wing in all cases, and one could debate whether a left-wing sheriff could buck a right-wing president and claim they are more powerful than them. But historically this idea did emerge on the right in American politics. Sheriffs were long associated with conservative, law-and-order views — they were often using violence to stop civil rights efforts in the 1960s — and in the 1980s and 1990s, as many on the right grew angry with the federal government over debacles like the standoff at Ruby Ridge, or the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, they looked to sheriffs as the ones who could stand up against federal "tyranny" (that was the word you tended to see). It was right-wing, anti-government activists who promoted this idea, and sheriffs who were already politically conservative then adopted it. So it's up for debate whether it's inherently or necessarily a "right wing idea," but practically and historically it has been.

Hi there, I actually wrote an article on this: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/10/22/progressive-sheriffs-are-here-will-they-win-in-november

Although their numbers are small, there are lots of sheriffs who have claimed progressive views, and the question will be whether they're able to actually make changes once they're in office. Also what it means to be 'progressive' can be debated: Is it making a jail more rehabilitative? Is it banning aggressive policing tactics? Is it refusing to arrest people seeking abortions? Is it spending more money to help people in the jail, or defunding your own department? Susan Hutson ran as a progressive in New Orleans (Orleans Parish) to make the jail less deadly, and yet the rate of deaths in the jail under her tenure hasn't declined. Then you've got Javier Salazar in San Antonio (Bexar County) who also has problems in his jail, but has made a big public attack on Florida governor Ron DeSantis, pledging to investigate the migrant flights to Martha's Vineyard. So it's all in the eye of the beholder a little bit. One sheriff who I don't believe uses the word 'progressive' to describe himself but has been flying under the radar, doing things that I think the left would generally celebrate, is Morris Young of Gadsden County, Florida, who works to break the cycle of incarceration: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/gadsden-florida-sheriff-prison-re-entry-program-morris-young