How fear of crime helped Trump win

Critics of Donald Trump like to portray his supporters as hardcore right-wingers. The truth is much clearer: many of those who voted for Trump are refugees from the conservative establishment, desperate for a leader who is unafraid to challenge their beliefs to tell the truth.

We Americans are afraid. Literally

Shamed by elites, ridiculed for their beliefs—sidelined by rising “wokeness” and DEI culture because they are white, straight, or male—they saw Trump as a man of action who, with their approach, went back to basics Weltanschauung sympathized. Tired of being told what to say and what to feel, Trump’s supporters were ready to reclaim their voice in the safest space there is: the ballot box.

The anti-elitist populism that brought Trump to power in 2016 is still alive and well. But today things look completely different. Instead of hardline truckers and Carolina coal miners, there is an almost unimaginable coalition of disaffected black, Jewish and Latino voters who have been failed by the progressive establishment. The economy is, of course, one of their main concerns – particularly the disappearance of working-class jobs now being siphoned off by illegal immigrants. But crime and security are just as pressing. Both Black and Jewish voters are bearing the brunt of the Joe Biden era’s laissez-faire approach to law and order.

Both groups are at the forefront of the country’s crime crisis. Trump is seen by many as their savior. For Jews, it is keffiyeh-clad activists chanting for Hamas that have helped increase anti-Semitic attacks in America. Meanwhile, under Biden, the number of African Americans killed by gun violence has reached a record high.

Trump made it clear that his second term will be far stricter than his first. The country’s crime crisis is a major reason for this. He told Mexico he would send “kill squads” to hunt down drug traffickers. He is planning “the largest domestic deportation operation” in history for illegal immigrants; He has promised to deploy the National Guard to fight bad guys – America’s “enemy within,” as Trump called them. Most importantly, he has made it clear that he has little tolerance for the Gaza protesters, whom Trump has called “raving lunatics.”

Back in his 2017 inaugural address, Trump railed against the “American carnage” that he believed would destroy the greatness of our nation. The Obamas, the “elites” – Hillary’s emails – all were symptoms of existential rot that only he could recognize and fix. Today, that carnage has become real, manifesting and metastasizing in the thousands demonstrating for Palestine as well as the number of black men shot in downtown Chicago on an average weekend.

But a backlash is already brewing — if not boiling over — fueled by the belief that returning Trump to the White House is the key to restoring law and order. The conflict here is less between right and left and more between the middle and the extremes. But it is a big center. In fact, much of the nation — including me — has had enough. In addition to our very real financial challenges, we Americans are also afraid. Literally.

A backlash is already brewing

Post-George Floyd threats to “defund the police”? They worked. Across the country, police forces have been decimated in cities of all sizes, while fentanyl has turned urban centers into ghost towns and shoplifting has become an epidemic. Police resources are depleted the moment crowds of protesters close bridges – and cities like New York and Los Angeles are experiencing a frightening rise in high-profile violent crimes on public transit. It’s no wonder Americans today want peace and certainty. They want a return to law and order that transcends traditional boundaries such as race, politics or class.

Since abortion and affirmative action have already been rolled back, Americans understand this may Survive when once sacred progressive totems are no longer the law of the land – even if you don’t agree with it. They are willing to sacrifice a few “soft” rights (the recriminalization of low-grade drugs, a return to stop-and-frisk) in exchange for the most sacred right of all: to sleep without worrying about endless bills or our children overdosing to have to – opioid use or another anti-Israel protest disrupting our commute.

In some places, this is already happening: Oregon, for example, recently recriminalized the possession of small amounts of narcotics, which were decriminalized in 2020 to benefit addiction treatment services. The ensuing fentanyl crisis has shown this model to be both ineffective and deadly. San Francisco voters appear to be favoring two measures that will curtail sacred freedoms for the left: welfare recipients could soon be subject to drug testing, and restrictions on police officers pursuing suspects are likely to be relaxed. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Tom Cotton has called on the Pentagon to root out Hamas supporters like Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty military member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington.

If this all sounds a little totalitarian, that might well be because that’s where we are right now. The White House’s failure to protect Americans today is symptomatic of a much larger cultural decay, from lowered educational standards to the release of criminals. These things have undermined the values ​​that have long made America exceptional. This is a betrayal of our nation’s ideals so grave that nothing less than a thorough examination and reckoning will suffice. As he begins to plan his return to Washington, Trump is making it clear that the reckoning has already begun.

This article was originally published on The spectator‘s UK website.