Incarceration in many states is actually declining, and the beginnings of something like a political consensus—however tenuous and uneasy—has formed, between left and right, that locking up millions of our own citizens has been an expensive, tragic, and embarrassing mistake. But the law and order demagoguery of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, its aggressive celebration of white fear—of terrorists, immigrants, and black criminals—shows just how weak that consensus is. Because white fear is always waiting in the wings.
