OPINION:
At the Sept. 16 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel reported that since the National Guard’s deployment to the District of Columbia, gun crimes have decreased 60%, carjackings have gone down 74% and homicides have dropped by 53%.
After President Trump signaled that Chicago might be next, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back with, “This is bad for the state of Illinois.” Mr. Trump pointed out on Sept. 9 that “24 of the top 25 most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrat mayors.” If I were Mr. Pritzker, I’d be in panic mode too. The areas of the country secured by Democrats are at risk of turning red.
Mr. Pritzker knows that if Mr. Trump took what was successful in rapidly bringing down crime in the District and applied it to other blue cities, voters would realize that Republicans are better at making their streets safer. I used to think that all the little blue metro dots on the presidential election county map were because of class envy from sandwiching the poor with the rich, but after seeing the reaction of people in the District to the reduction in crime, I’m convinced it’s the acceptance that more government spending is always the answer.
Voters in the one place Democrats have control over — metropolitan areas — are going to figure out it’s soft-on-crime policies, not lack of funding, that are the problem.
The day metro voters figure out that Republicans are better at fighting crime is the day the left’s grip is over.
BEN FURLEIGH
Port Charlotte, Florida
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