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WITH CITIES RACKED BY VIOLENCE, CAN TRUMP WIN WITH PROMISE TO RESTORE SAFETY AND ORDER? Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York — they’re experiencing a breakdown of order that is a mixture of left-wing revolution, racial unrest, and old-fashioned crime. Whatever else they might have in common, all are governed by progressive Democrats, and all owe their current disorder in some part to the failure of progressive Democratic policies on the issue of public safety.
That should be an advantage for a Republican president running for re-election. What is unclear is whether President Trump can make it work for his campaign.
What has been striking to many observers of the rioting following the March 25 death of George Floyd has been the degree to which local officials allowed — and sometimes seemingly encouraged — the forces of disorder to run wild in their cities.
Start in early June, with a crowd pulling down a statue of Christopher Columbus near the state capitol in St. Paul. Where were the police? Nobody did anything to stop the vandals. Instead, officials talked about defunding the police. The scene of statues torn down without consequence was replayed in other cities.
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Then there was Seattle, with CHAZ/CHOP. Mayor Durkan did nothing to stop it — said the anarchist takeover of part of her city had a “block party atmosphere” and might turn into a “summer of love.” Now, emerging accounts of CHAZ/CHOP show that life in the zone was more dystopian hell than summer of love. There was violence. Looting. Property destruction. Armed men demanding protection money. Businesses disappearing, with years of work lost.
And Portland. For more than 70 nights, rioters have attacked the substance and symbols of the rule of law: the U.S. courthouse in the city and various police facilities. For weeks, armed officers of the Department of Homeland Security protected the federal courthouse. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler condemned federal law enforcement and claimed repeatedly that the presence of those forces, ordered there by President Trump, was responsible for the mayhem. Then the feds left, and the riots continued.
New York has not had nightly Portland-style demonstrations. But Mayor Bill de Blasio has been slashing the police budget, weakening police crime-investigating abilities, and freeing prisoners. Result: A huge crime wave, with shootings and murders up by huge percentages over last year.
And finally, Chicago. The city has seen its already-horrendous violent crime rate spike again — murders up 55 percent since this time last year. And then, on Monday, hundreds of looters attacked the city’s Miracle Mile shopping area, smashing windows, stealing anything they could carry, and at one point getting into a shootout with police.
This is an election year. Election years are times for partisan arguments. They don’t have to be nuanced. They don’t have to be subtle. And one Republican message this year is: The people who are tolerating and even cheering on the forces of disorder are Democrats. What will the Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden, do about that?
Probably not much. Don’t look for Biden to have what in the 1990s was called a Sister Souljah moment — to take a stand against extremists on his own side. Instead, Biden, who has apologized for his role in the Bill Clinton-era crime bill, is trying to play both sides of the street. Just look at what he tells different groups about the idea of defunding the police.
Down in the polls, time running out, President Trump faces a daunting re-election battle. But the failure of progressive governance to ensure public safety around the country has given him an opportunity, if he can take it.
