With the GOP seizing on big-city crime as a top midterm issue, the Democratic think tank Third Way is trying to turn the tables with this provocative finding in a new report, "The Red State Murder Problem":
The six states with the highest per-capita murder rates all voted for President Trump in 2020 — as did 8 of the top 10.
"Republicans seem to do a much better job of talking about stopping crime than stopping crime," said Jim Kessler, Third Way's EVP for policy, and an author of the report.
Third Way looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump, compared to the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden:
In Trump states, the rate was 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents.
the rate was 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents. In Biden states, the rate was 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents.
the rate was 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents. "These Biden-voting states include the 'crime-is-out-of-control' cities of Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Portland, Baltimore, and Minneapolis," the report notes.
The bottom line: "[Y]ou would think that the increase in murder is a phenomenon found mostly in liberal cities," Third Way says. "But the ... increase in murders is not a liberal cities problem but a national problem."
MoonShadowArt on March 16th, 2022 at 15:42 UTC »
Don’t those red states also finish near the bottom on education ratings?
8to24 on March 16th, 2022 at 13:45 UTC »
"The six states with the highest per-capita murder rates all voted for President Trump in 2020 — as did 8 of the top 10. In Trump states, the rate was 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents. In Biden states, the rate was 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents."
This helps explain why it's so much more effective when Republicans complain about crime. Republican voters live in communities that have worse crime. Reasons for crime are often related to economic factors, health, addiction, mental health, etc. It's hard to fit the environmental links to individual acts of violence onto a bumper sticker. It's hard to explain why caring about and helping (in advance) those people who might potentially become murderers is important.
Honestly Democrats are better off doing what Republicans do on issues like these. Democrats should just highlight the numbers. Highlight the murder rate, highlight the opioid overdoses, highlight the suicides, etc and say "shame on you" to Republicans. Don't even father presenting alternatives. Republicans don't bother presenting alternatives. The people that live in these communities are accustomed to the way Republicans framed things. So Democrats should just mirror that in those communities.
DragonPup on March 16th, 2022 at 13:08 UTC »
Murder rate per 100k is 41.8% higher in states that voted for Trump. Yikes.