GOP crime dog whistle is its go-to coded racial appeal

 

Headline: New York Times, 8/31/2023

It's the GOP's go-to coded racial appeal.

Republican politicians often treat it as an established fact: Where they are in power, crime is low. Where Democrats are in power, crime is high. 

“Republican-run cities are doing very nicely because they arrest people when you have crimes,” Donald Trump told Tucker Carlson last week. 

“The cities and these left-wing states allowing criminals to run wild on our streets, that doesn’t work,” Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, said in March, citing New York in particular. 

But party rule does not drive crime. Consider DeSantis’s state, Florida. Its homicide rate was roughly 50 percent higher than New York’s in 2021. Florida’s two most populous cities, Jacksonville and Miami, each had a homicide rate more than double New York City’s last year, even though both had Republican mayors.

Related posts:

2022 election 'rising crime' dog whistle:  GOP election denier queen Janel Brandtjen wants to put more Black people in prison.  (10/9/2023)

Racist dog whistles in play as GOP campaign for Wisconsin governor begins.  (1/18/2022)

Dear Esther Cepeda, That's not branding.  It's dog whistle politics.  Please call it what it is.  Best, Retiring Guy.  (11/20/2021)

GOP racist dog whistle doesn't resonate with majority of voters in Mequon-Thiensville School District recall.  (11/3/2021)