Here are the opening paragraphs of Rachael Bade’s article at politico.com, in which she analyzes Trump’s “early August Beltway crime crackdown” in Washington D.C. and its consequences…with my reactions in blue:
Trump Is Leaning in on Crime. Democrats Need a Better Response — and Fast.
To many Washington insiders, President Trump’s early August Beltway crime crackdown seemed like an opportunistic and hamhanded pivot after getting walloped for weeks over the Jeffrey Epstein affair. WHAT “Jeffrey Epstein affair”? As is usual for liberal/left venues, the name Epstein is floated out there as if it incriminates Trump, but with no specific claim that Trump did a thing wrong…because there no evidence that he did. This is journalistic BS at its clearest.
But if it wasn’t clear then, it is now: The White House’s public safety play is a deliberate ploy to refocus the narrative on an issue that favors Republicans ahead of the midterms — one that’s already backing Democrats into a corner. A “deliberate ploy”, or an honest, desperately needed action to address rampant crime in Washington D.C.?
The president in recent days is leaning even further into using the National Guard as a glorified police force, visiting the troops and allowing them to be armed. He’s suggested he’s eyeing Chicago and New York next for their next deployment. On Sunday, he needled Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for Baltimore’s notorious crime statistics, hinting he could send troops there as well. This paragraph Ms. Bade got right. But now comes the “why” of it:
It’s a sign that despite polling showing how unpopular Trump’s moves are in Washington, the president is playing to a national audience — and betting this is a battle he and the GOP can win. If his recent escalation was an attempt to goad Democrats into declaring that crime isn’t a problem, repelling swing voters in the process, top Democrats did not disappoint him. Uh…since Trump is almost universally rejected in D.C., anything he does is likely to poll negatively…though, in this case, the National Guard deployment was viewed positively by almost triple the percentage of votes he got in the last election (17% positive, 6% Trump voters). And if crime truly were not a problem, Trump’s “goading” (as Bade puts it) Democrats into downplaying it would not be a problem for them. The fact that it is a problem should (but apparently doesn’t) communicate a reality that Bade, and all too many of her media counterparts, refuse to face.
Over the weekend, Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York released statements arguing that crime in their cities was down or that there’s no “emergency” requiring the National Guard. Other Democrats have glossed over voters’ concerns about public safety, deriding Trump as an “authoritarian.” The key term here? “glossed over” voters concerns about public safety. Can Democrats like Pritzker and Hochul (among many others) really be so obtuse? If voters are concerned about public safety it is because they feel public safety is a real issue. Why do Democrat think they feel this way? Because they are imagining crime is a real issue?
The problem is that while some voters might not like overtly political power grabs, history shows they dislike feeling unsafe even more. Expanding homeless encampments and drug overdoses in plain view have left many of them fearful. Hello, Rachael Bade. Wakeup call here. People are not just imagining crime as an issue, they are experiencing it. And if Democrats’ answer is to pretend crime isn’t that bad and to attack Trump for addressing it, they have created their own problem. But the problem is not a political one, as you seem to think it is. The problem is that crime is real. It is frightening. And Democrats, by trying to con voters into believing it isn’t, are, as the crude but apropos saying goesn, pissing on their heads and trying to convince them that it’s raining.
OK, there you have it. The politico.com side and mine.
Which makes more sense? You decide.
