You remember back in the old days when there wasn’t any crime? You know, when you were young and the world was like Leave It to Beaver?
If you know anything about American crime statistics, you would wonder when that exactly was. The problem with those fond memories of safe streets and no crime is they aren’t really based on reality. Now, perhaps the town you grew up in had lower crime when you were a kid, but overall, this is not true for the United States.
The facts are not on your side. Let’s take a look at the murder rate.
Okay, I am 58, and I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. I remember older relatives lamenting how things aren’t like they used to be, crime is worse. So then, they had a reason to say so.
But, people my age? People who are 50 or 60? If you think that crime was non-existent in your salad days, well, the reality doesn’t match the memory.
This type of nostalgia has led to a skewed perception of crime among the public. Americans believe that crime is always rising. This is not true right now.
I mean, if crime was rising every year for decades, a trip to the grocery store would be like Mad Max in every town in America.
Nostalgia for your old neighborhood, playing with your friends, your high school, your college years, your young adult years, etc. is not harmful. But the kind of nostalgia that makes people believe that crime was low in a time when it wasn’t is the kind that authoritarians use as a weapon.
Fascists like Trump promise a return to better and simpler times. The problem is that these times either never existed or were very bad for minorities. The latter is part of the appeal. But the people who believe that crime is rising isn’t just Trump voters. Polls show that independents and even a minority of Democrats believe crime is increasing.
This gives Trump cover to invade cities with Democratic mayors, using the National Guard and federal agents. He claims this is about crime, but no one with any sense really believes this. Unfortunately, fear 0verc0mes sense, and this is something that Trump and his cronies are well aware of.
Some Democrats have been reluctant to call Trump out on his real intentions. Sending troops to cities run by his political enemies is not hard to see as something dangerous. But a populace afraid of crime will be much more likely to support such actions. While polling shows that more people oppose sending troops, the number that favor an authoritarian occupying blue cities is way too high, 40-45 percent.
No doubt, a large part of this is because these people believe crime is out of control. And that occupying these cities will lower crime. These people either do not understand what Trump’s intentions are, or they are enthusiastically supporting it.
It is hard not to see these troops being used to attack protestors, or even used to intimidate voters in the midterms next year. Because that’s what fascists do. It’s not about crime, and all Democrats need to strongly make that point like JB Pritsker and Gavin Newsom are doing, and fight it. And Americans need to reject, starting by admitting their fond nostalgic memories might be false.
The last word goes to a golden oldie from The Beatles (this is good nostalgia).
