Why Crime Is Atop Most Voters’ Lists as the Mid-Terms Approach

Winston Churchill once famously described courage as the greatest of all human traits, undoubtedly because it is courage that enables people to have the strength to use their other traits for good causes. A good definition of courage is the power to overcome fear.

As we head into the mid-term elections few issues are creating more fear in the minds of many voters than the growing crime crisis we are sadly seeing across many major cities in America today. Crime rates were in a steady multi-decade decline from the early 1990s up until 2020, but today incidents of violence in and around many urban areas are completely out of control.

Crime in general has been up significantly in Democratic-run cities and states, and, sadly, violent crime rates have also rising significantly in these urban areas as well.

The difference between crime and other political issues that invariably come up during a campaign is that many people see and feel the impact of violence daily. Every day people read and hear about the out-of-control violence. This is particularly true in some of the most violent cities in America in the states with intensely contested House and Senate races, such as in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Rates of violence have been out of control in cities such as Philadelphia and Atlanta for a while, and GOP nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz has picked up nearly 10 points on Democrat John Fetterman just in the last month primarily by focusing on Fetterman’s very weak record on crime.

Voters aren’t stupid, they remember the defund-the-police rhetoric and policies that most on the left endorsed. Sadly some cities, such as Austin, Texas, actually did defund the police, and the results were predictably disastrous. The homicide rate in Austin is at a 61 year high after the city cut the budget for the police significantly over a year ago.

This is why it isn’t surprising that a recent poll showed that 65% of Americans think crime is getting worse, 83% of Americans think crime will be an important issue in the midterm elections, and 56% of Americans think crime will be a very important issue in the upcoming presidential election. People see and feel the impacts of crime every day in and around most Democrat-run cities in America today. While left-wing networks like CNN and MSNBC try to ignore the massive crime wave, local news stations and newspapers still cover the violence.

Crime is already having an increasingly significant impact in states like Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia, the most violent city in American on per capita basis, is on pace to hit new all-time records for murders. Every week there are new shootings in the city of brotherly love, and the local news stations report each and every one of them. Philadelphia is yet another Democrat-run city with a far-left District Attorney, Larry Krasner, whose campaign was heavily financed by well-known groups tied to leftist George Soros.

You can try to tell people what to think, but you can’t tell people how to feel, and voters are rightly scared by the out-of-control crime we are seeing in Democrat run cities across the country. While the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June energized many on the left, people see and feel the impacts of issues like crime and inflation every day, most people don’t have the same kinds of visceral emotions about issues such as abortion. As the elections get closer, and, sadly, violent crime rates continue to spiral out of control, the fully justified fears many voters have over the violence they are seeing will likely continue to rise.

The absurd policies that the Democrats are pushing and that many on the left have advocated in the past, such as defunding the police, aren’t likely to persuade many moderate or independent voters as November fast approaches.