I recently visited the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site and couldn’t avoid seeing similarities to the current conflicts in Los Angeles.

In 1957, federal law required that black students be allowed to enroll in previously all-white public schools, just as federal law currently requires that people without legal permission to be in the United States not be allowed to remain here. In 1957, angry mobs of protesters, encouraged by the governor and other civic leaders, prevented enforcement of the law by blocking nine black children from entering Central High School.

Today, angry mobs of protesters in Los Angeles, encouraged by the governor, mayor, and the leader of the public sector union, are trying to prevent immigration officials from detaining aliens (including dangerous criminals) who are in the U.S. illegally and attacking federal buildings and law enforcement officials, both local and federal.

In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower intervened by mobilizing troops from the 101^st Airborne to ensure that the law would be enforced and black students be allowed to enter the school even in the face of angry mobs. Eisenhower did this over the objections of local and state officials, who were engaged in massive resistance and thought it was inappropriate to use the military against “peaceful” protesters, who were not always “peaceful.”

Eisenhower also federalized the Arkansas National Guard to ensure that they would obey his orders to assist with integration, even though Gov. Orval Faubus viewed this as an improper usurpation of the state’s claimed right to not comply with federal civil rights laws and to defy Supreme Court decisions ordering the desegregation of schools.

Today, President Donald Trump has ordered Marines to deploy to Los Angeles and has assumed control over the National Guard to ensure that immigration laws can be enforced in the face of angry mobs trying to block that and to protect law enforcement officials and federal property. Echoing the defiance of Faubus in 1957, California Gov, Gavin Newsom accuses Trump of “turning the military against the American people” and “a serious breach of state sovereignty—inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”

And despite claims that the LA protests are “mostly peaceful,” there are numerous reports and videos of cars being set on fire, rocks thrown at immigration officials, stores looted, and private property defaced with graffiti. The scene in front of Central High School included horrible verbal abuse, threats, and intimidation, but nowhere near the same level of violence and property destruction happening right now in California.

Eisenhower’s use of the military at Central High School is praised as a heroic stand for what is right. Eisenhower himself described his actions as establishing the principle that “mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.” This positive assessment is repeated in almost every school textbook and in every popular account of the Central High School crisis.

Why is Trump’s use of the military to enforce the law in LA being treated so differently than Eisenhower’s use of the military in Little Rock? The obvious explanation is that people care more about their policy preferences than they care about the consistent application of principle. It’s not mob rule that they find offensive, if the mob agitates for what they favor. In their eyes, “massive resistance” is justified to oppose enforcement of immigration law but not to oppose enforcement of integration because they like open borders and oppose segregation.

All the alarmist talk about authoritarianism and the end of democracy is just projection. They don’t mind undermining immigration laws enacted by democratically elected representatives when it suits their interests. They didn’t mind ruling by executive edict when President Barack Obama declared, “We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.” They support the use of the military to advance causes they favor but see it as the start of fascism when used for causes they oppose.

To be sure, there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around. But if people are sincerely interested in advancing the rule of law in our democratic republic, they might start by supporting legal actions even when they advance outcomes they dislike. They can start today by supporting the rule of law in Los Angeles and opposing mob violence.

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