Republicans are Planning to Connect Democrats to Rising Crime Rates Across America
According to a recent report by Max Greenwood at The Hill, Republicans are planning to connect Democrats to the dramatic spike in crime taking place nationwide. This type of messaging will form a key pillar of their campaign strategy to retake control of Congress in the 2022 midterms.
Republican leaders are banking on Democrat’s connection to radical policy proposals such as “defund the police” and lax policing practices and the current rise in crime as a way to pigeonhole Democrats as the pro-crime party.
According to a report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, homicide rates in large cities increased by 33% in 2020. Democrats have countered by saying that this surge crime happened under Donald Trump’s watch.
Such assertions are misleading because criminal justice and policing measures are largely shaped at the state and local level and the overwhelming majority of big cities are under Democrat or Democrat-affiliated politicians’ control.
“Crime and delinquency have many causes. In some ways, the pandemic likely contributed. But it is impossible to ignore that these terrible trends are coming precisely as so-called progressives have decided it’s time to denounce and defund local law enforcement,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently declared.
“These boneheaded decisions are the direct result of an anti-law enforcement fad that has swept through the political left like a wildfire.”
A recent Yahoo News-YouGov poll discovered that almost half of Americans, 49% to be exact, viewed violent crime as a “very big problem”, which represented a higher number than those who viewed the Wuhan virus, race relations, political correctness, or the economy as very big problems.
Republicans would be wise to use the law and order message as a central plank of their campaigns in 2022 at all levels of government.
Some cities and states won’t be so lucky to have relatively lax gun control laws like those in Arizona which allow for lawful individuals to easily arm themselves. At the very least, a competent law enforcement apparatus would help in maintaining a semblance of public order in crime-ridden cities where there aren’t many options for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves.
Tackling the crime issue is one way Republicans can make inroads with certain demographics that have historically eluded them and also position themselves as a political entity that exudes order and confidence. One thing is certain, however: Jared-Kushner style jailbreak policies should not be at the top of the Republican agenda.
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