The GOP Doesn’t Back The Blue
One of my objectives as a writer is to rebut the phony conventional wisdom that benefits the Republican Party. For example, contrary to all of the evidence, the Republicans aren’t better for the economy. The last three Republican presidents have presided over a recession and the last three Democratic presidents have presided over an economic boom. Trump is currently in the process of driving the once thriving U.S. economy into the ditch.
One of the most pernicious claims is that the Republicans support the police or Back the Blue. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Republicans say nice things about the police during their campaigns but then they stab them in the back once they are in office. Look at what the Republicans do — not what they say. That is rule number one for American politics.
Let’s start our inquiry with the fact that Trump is a 34 time convicted felon. In 2024, he was convicted by a jury of his peers in his hometown for falsifying business records in connection with the payment of a hush money to a porn star while his third wife was pregnant. This crime may have changed the outcome of the 2016 election since Trump concealed material information from the voters. This was a stolen election case.
Let’s continue this inquiry with a review of the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Don Old Trump incited his supporters to violently attack the U.S. Capitol to steal the election from Joe Biden. For over three hours Trump did nothing while his traitors attacked police officers. Finally after being pressured by Republican elected officials and the Fox “News” stars, Trump told his followers to go home.
Notwithstanding the MAGA propaganda, this three hour assault caused the deaths of five officers. One officer died of a stroke shortly after the attack but the stress of being in this event had still played some role in his death.
Four other heroic Capitol Police officers took their own lives shortly after the riot. Some of their spouses said they were not the same after the horrors they went through. In response, Congress passed a law extending a public benefits program for the families of the police officers who were killed or severely wounded on that horrible day so that it also covered those who died by suicide. These kinds of benefits are not typically granted to those who commit suicide. The award of these benefits confirmed that these four brave men died in the line of duty.
Another 150 officers were wounded by Trump’s thugs, with some describing it at public hearings and in court as a “medieval” style battle with traitors who wielded hockey sticks, two-by-fours, batons and even flagpoles against them.
After Trump’s traitors went home, he told them that they were very “special.” Since he has regained power in 2025, Trump pardoned every one of these thugs even though some prominent elected Republican officials, including J.D. Vance, opposed these undeserved pardons. Since they have been pardoned, many of these cowardly bums have gone on to commit more crimes.
One year later on January 6, 2022, the Democrats in the U.S. House held a solemn ceremony in the Capitol to commemorate the brave police officers who protected them and saved their lives. Dick and Liz Cheney were the only Republicans who attended this event. The other Republicans were conspicuous inn their absence.
In 2022, the Congress passed a law that required the placing of a plaque honoring the police officers on the west side of the U.S. Capitol no later than March 2023. Mike Johnson and the House Republicans have defied that law and refused to hang the plaque. In response, two police officers who protected the Capitol on January 6 have filed suit to compel Johnson and the House GOP to obey the law. A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not respond to a request for comment and has not previously indicated whether or when the plaque might be hung.
The Republicans like to accuse the Democrats of defunding the police but the reality is that the GOP has defunded the police. The 2021 American Rescue Act included $10 billion for police departments and public safety. Every Republican voted no.
Since the Republicans gained control of all of the branches in 2024, they have begun efforts to defund the police. The Trump budget proposal includes roughly $1.2 billion budget for ATF in fiscal 2026, which would be reduced from its current funding level of about $1.625 billion. If passed, that would be the agency’s lowest budget since at least 2016. The Republican budget would harm law enforcement’s ability to crack down on violent crime.
“Trump is officially defunding the police. The gun homicide rate skyrocketed 34% during Trump’s first term, and these mammoth law enforcement cuts will spur violent crime across the country. It is the opposite of Making America Safer,” said Emma Brown of the Gabrielle Giffords Foundation.
The so-called conventional wisdom about the Republicans and the police is wrong. It’s the Democrats who back the police and who can keep us safe. As I’ve discussed in a previous article, 8 out of the 10 states with the highest homicide rates were carried by Trump. The Republican Party has a failed record on crime and the police.
MAGA means Morons Are Governing America.
Throw the rascals out! Blue wave 2026!
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/us/politics/trump-jan-6-deaths.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html
https://protectdemocracy.org/work/opposition-to-pardoning-violent-january-6-offenders-persists/
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/qualified-immunity-legal-practical-moral-failure