All week, Lindsey Granger and I have been discussing debating President Trump’s approach to tackling the crime problem in Washington, D.C.
Our debate mirrors a national debate taking place — Republicans are applauding Trump’s decision to send in federal troops and impose order on the crime-plagued national capital, whereas Democrats and mainstream media progressives are disdaining this action, quibbling over the statistics, or even defiantly insisting that everything is perfectly fine in D.C. A characteristic response came from House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said he feels totally safe at all times walking around the city.
Right. Suuuuuure.
Now look, as I said yesterday, it’s perfectly fine to disagree with Trump’s particular strategy for combatting crime: i.e., deploying the National Guard. If your perspective is that D.C. needs more local police detectives, competent prosecutors, and a working crime lab more than we need federal troops, well — I agree with you! If your perspective is, everything is fine, nothing to see here, you’re either lying or you haven’t spent much time in my neck of the woods.
And here’s the thing: Local Democrats, like Mayor Muriel Bowser, already know this. They also know something that progressive elites apparently don’t: the American people agree with Donald Trump on crime. In fact, they trust Republicans so much more than Democrats on this issue, it’s not even funny.
Here’s CNN pollster Harry Enten breaking down the numbers. Trump is massively ahead on this issue. It’s a big winner for him.
And here’s more: Smart Democrats know it. I was not surprised to see Chris Matthews, the liberal commentator who is by the far the most plugged into what ordinary Americans think, making this point on MSNBC:
“You can’t keep saying violent crime is down but the murder rate’s up — to the average person the murder rate is about life and death. You don’t brag about a rising murder rate. … The Democrats are falling in the trap of defending what’s indefensible.”
It’s a trap! I always love a Star Wars reference.
I’m not in the habit of giving advice to Democrats, but it seems to me that avoiding the trap is pretty easy. Just say the following: Crime levels in cities like D.C. are unacceptable. It’s true that things are better than they were during the pandemic, but Americans deserve a baseline of safer cities. To that end, we advocate X, Y, Z policies to make cities safer.
In D.C., that means hiring and training more homicide detectives, deploying more authority figures to patrol dangerous neighborhoods, deterring teenage gangs from forming, and giving the criminal justice system whatever it needs to prosecute criminals and lock them up.
These commonsense policies are popular with the American people. Are Democrats willing to listen?
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.
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