We still don’t get it.
On the issue of crime, the Republicans have been playing my fellow Democrats like a fiddle for 50 years. And now we’re getting played again.
The latest maestro is President Trump, who has deployed National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. — to address an alleged “crime emergency” — and in Los Angeles, where he cited protests against immigration raids. He has mused about sending troops to Chicago, Baltimore and other cities. And on Monday, Trump directed the Defense Department to create “specialized units” within the National Guard to assist local police “in quelling civil disturbances.”
It’s all part of Trump’s efforts to protect “law and order,” according to a White House fact sheet. That’s been a Republican talking point since the days of Richard Nixon, who rode to victory in 1968 by flooding the airwaves with images of switchblades and hypodermic needles. The message was clear: If you’re worried about crime, vote Republican.
And the Democrats’ response? The GOP is exaggerating the problem. It’s stoking racism by highlighting African American criminality. And it’s promoting a federal militarization of policing, which places our entire democracy in peril.
That was true in the 1960s, and it’s even more true today. As Democratic leaders have noted over the past several weeks, urban crime has recently decreased in the U.S. Trump is targeting cities because they often have Black leaders or large Black populations. And his use of federal troops — and his threats to deploy more — represent “an authoritarian power grab,” as Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker warned.
But in America, the party that seems weaker on crime will always lose. So Democrats need to stop downplaying the problem, even if the facts are on our side. Instead, we need to turn the tables and show how Republicans are harming law enforcement., because that’s also a fact.
Start with the assault on the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when hundreds of protesters attacked police officers. One man was convicted of assaulting police officers with a metal crutch. Another pleaded guilty to plunging a stun gun into an officer’s neck. A third pleaded guilty to pepper-spraying officer Brian Sicknick, who died the following day.
All of those criminals — and more than 1,500 others facing charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot — are free now, because Trump pardoned them. He didn’t “Back the Blue”; instead, he threw them under the bus.
That’s why the National Association of Police Organizations denounced Trump, declaring that “those who commit violent assaults on law enforcement officers should not benefit from a pardon.”
And that was a near-echo of Vice President JD Vance, who said shortly after the Jan. 6 riot that “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” But Vance supported all of the pardons and commutations after Trump issued them, as did most other Republican leaders. How does that make the Republicans the party of law and order?
Or consider the Trump administration’s slashing of $500 million in federal assistance to state and local police, including funds for gun violence prevention programs. In a June letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, law enforcement groups and police chiefs noted that these programs had led to “measurable and significant reductions in violence and homicides.”
“These aren’t feel-good programs, they’re life-saving, law-enforcement-enhancing strategies that work,” the letter added. But now they’re holding on for their lives, threatened by the same White House that says it’s pro-police.
Nor have most police welcomed Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, which insults their own efforts and expertise. “We could handle this,” the Los Angeles police chief said, after Trump sent troops to his city. Trump said otherwise, of course, insisting — without evidence — that Los Angeles “would be burning” without his intervention.
Again, that shows Republican disrespect for law enforcement. And the Democrats need to stress that theme, over and over again.
But we still can’t bring ourselves to do it. Instead of attacking the Republican Party for its weak record on crime, we continue to say that crime is going down. “The statistics speak for themselves,” former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said recently.
No, they don’t. Public safely remains a major issue for millions of Americans, especially for non-whites who have been abandoning the Democratic Party. To win them back, we need to show that we hear — and share — their concerns.
If you’re Black or brown in America, you’re more likely to be a victim of crime. Most of these voters want more police — not fewer — so they’re unlikely to be swayed by charges of racism in law enforcement.
Nor does the Democrats’ rhetoric about creeping authoritarianism resonate with most Americans; to the contrary, it will turn them off. To win the next set of elections, we need to get people who voted Republican the last time to come into our column. Do we really think they’ll be persuaded if we call their leader a fascist?
The better play is to call him soft on crime. That’s the only way to avoid getting played, yet again. And, best of all, it’s true.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the advisory board of the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest.
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