I’ll continue to explain this as long as it’s still relevant: People hear words differently based on their beliefs. We hear “law” as rules that everybody must follow. They hear “law” as state power, or agents of the state who wield that power, like in “the law is at the door.”
That means we hear “rule of law” to mean that even the powerful have to obey the rules like the rest of us. They hear “rule of law” as the exercise of state power by its agents (police, ICE, ATF, et al.), and they prefer it to be exercised vigorously against outgroups.
I’ll continue to explain this as long as it’s still relevant: People hear words differently based on their beliefs. We hear “law” as rules that everybody must follow. They hear “law” as state power, or agents of the state who wield that power, like in “the law is at the door.”
That means we hear “rule of law” to mean that even the powerful have to obey the rules like the rest of us. They hear “rule of law” as the exercise of state power by its agents (police, ICE, ATF, et al.), and they prefer it to be exercised vigorously against outgroups.