Protecting the in-group from you, the out-group Jonathan Last on Friday made sure readers saw clearly that for Republicans “law and order” has a very, very narrow meaning. Last was commenting on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s pardon of Daniel Perry, convicted and sentenced to 25 years for the vigilante murder of Garrett Foster during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. Last recounts the details that put Perry, a racist murderer, behind bars, but the key detail is Abbott’s pardon: There is no legal or moral justification for pardoning Perry. His trial was fair. The jury acted reasonably. The laws he broke were well-defined and serious. He is not a good guy who had one bad moment. There is no indication that he has repented and become a different man than the one who fantasized about murder and then carried it out. The only reason to pardon Perry is political. Pardoning Perry creates political gain for Gov. Abbott because his constituents like Perry. And these voters like Perry precisely because of who he murdered. Texas last year passed a law allowing the removal of “rogue” elected district attorneys like the one who brought charges against Perry, and like the ones removed in Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Pay attention to the message Abbott’s sending: The public justification for the law was that some DA’s were too lenient on crime. Today the state is looking into removing José Garza, the DA who prosecuted Perry. While pardoning Perry, Gov. Abbott claimed that Garza had “demonstrated unethical…