May 27, 2021

"Donald Trump tried to make law and order a defining issue in 2020, but the rioting he so forcefully denounced was, in most places, too transitory to become an overwhelming issue."

"He was also in the awkward position of trying to run against disorder as an incumbent rather than a challenger, and his chaotic governing style wasn’t a good match for a message of orderliness. But now, more than a year into a serious crime wave, Democrats should beware—they are fooling themselves if they think they won’t be blamed for a rise in violence in Democratic-run cities that clearly, at some level, is a result of police forces feeling beleaguered and overwhelmed."

Writes Rich Lowry in "Democrats Ignore the Crime Spike at Their Own Peril/The issue of public safety may be about to play its most significant role in our politics since the mid-1990s" (Politico).

1 comment:

Ann Althouse said...

David writes:

"Trump’s biggest problem with running as a law and order Republican is that he isn’t one. He and Javanka pushed the first step act and police reform throughout his administration. Javanka and Trump favored reducing incarceration rates and bail reform. These policies put more criminals in the streets.

"His other big problem was that the media was incredibly hostile to him and sympathetic to BLM, Antifa, and to the left. The media did its best to portray the riots as “mostly peaceful” and played up the Proud Boys and white nationalist bogeyman as counterpoints to the left wing violence. Very effectively neutralized the advantage the GOP should have had."