Elected Republicans Fueling Crime Wave
The year 2020 was a bad year for the United States for many reasons. Over 200,000 Americans died of covid-19 due to the negligence of Donald Trump and the country went through its deepest recession since the Bush recession of 2008–09. And on top of all that bad news, major American cities saw a 33% increase in homicides last year.
The conventional wisdom from the “liberal” mainstream media is that the Democrats should be worried about the crime issue. (The so-called “conventional wisdom” usually interprets events as favoring the Republicans even though the last two Republican presidencies were unmitigated disasters.) In reality, it’s the Republicans who should be worried about the crime issue — not the Democrats.
The Republicans are blaming the Democrats for the increasing murder rate, but, in reality, it’s elected Republican officials who are to blame. The reason why we are undergoing a crime wave is because it’s simply too easy for unsuitable people to obtain guns. And the blame for that falls squarely on the shoulders of Republicans due to their long time fealty to the National Rifle Association or the gun lobby.
“Gun sales increased in 2020 by 40%.
Gun deaths increased in 2020 by 30%.
That’s not a coincidence. If more guns made us safe, the U.S. would be the safest country in the world.” Chris Murphy tweet.
A recent article by Fordham University law professor John Pfaff indicates that the evidence for the Republican argument that the uptick in violent crime is due to efforts to reform police budgets and the punitive justice system is ridiculous:
“To be clear, the defenders of the status quo are mistaken. Not only have reforms been less extreme than they often claim, but the rise in homicides has occurred more or less equally in places that adopted reforms and those that rejected them. And given how few places have significantly altered their approach to crime, the homicide spike by and large took place on the status quo’s watch. Those who want policy to remain more punitive are thus arguing for more of what has mostly failed us this past year, and they are trying to blame reforms that appear to be uncorrelated with the surge.”
Another inconvenient fact for the D.C. Republicans is that every last of one of them voted to defund the police when they opposed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. This landmark legislation provided funding for police departments around the country. Moreover, these funds prevented mass layoffs by county and municipal governments.
Former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville in a recent Wall Street Journal op/ed (correctly) advised the Democrats to blame the GOP for the current crime wave: “From 1993 to 2019, crime steadily decreased in the U.S. Every president since Bill Clinton inherited a declining crime rate and left office with a further decline in crime rate, until Donald J. Trump came along. During Mr. Trump’s final year in office, violent crimes and homicides spiked.
The modern Democratic Party is flat-out better on crime than Republicans. Mr. Trump presided over the greatest crime rise in modern American history. Now it’s time for the Democratic consultant class to stop its bed-wetting on this issue and take this case to the American people: A lawless president created the perfect storm for the crime crisis America now faces.
From beginning to the end, Mr. Trump’s presidency was one long crime wave. He broke laws, obstructed justice and incited violence knowing he wouldn’t be held accountable while in office. Eight of his campaign associates were put in shackles. He pardoned five of them.”
Carville said “all of this culminated” during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He pointed to that day, and Republicans’ subsequent efforts to defend the violent attack against law enforcement and oppose funds for Capitol Police, to question “who really voted to defund the police?” and “Who did it to cover up the investigation of a host of crimes?”
“Not the Democrats,” Carville answered.
Carville argued that Democrats should “hold Mr. Trump and the Republicans accountable” when it comes to crime. “Make them own the crime wave they created,” he added.
“He [Trump] and the Republicans don’t accept responsibility for the crime wave either. Instead, they point fingers at everyone else. But they built it, and they own it.”
“The Republican Party is betting that the American people will suffer amnesia from the carnage of the Trump presidency. It’s our job to keep the disastrous failures of the Trump presidency, including on crime, alive and well from now until Election Day 2022.” James Carville wrote.
The reality is that the current GOP is extreme. “Today’s Republican party. Anti-military, anti police and anti-democracy.” Joe Lockhart tweet. As Democrats we need to make a major effort to educate the voters that the GOP is radical and outside of the mainstream. In the 2020 campaign, our candidates simply didn’t spend enough money emphasizing this theme and spent too many resources talking about bi-partisanship. That simply doesn’t work.
The 2022 election cycle will be here before you know it. The 2022 elections for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House are now about the continuation of democracy itself. Senator Brian Schatz tweet. If the GOP regains control of the Congress, they will vote to steal the presidential election in 2024 from Joe Biden.
We have our work cut for us in 2022. Let’s get it done! Let’s leave it all out on the field! We can do this!