First, there’s a hanging double customary within the methods politicians are allowed to speak about completely different areas of America. Voters from rural states usually complain about not getting sufficient respect, however are you able to think about the response if, say, the Senate majority chief, Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, had been to explain Alabama — which in 2021 had an awfully excessive price of firearm mortality — as a spot the place everybody runs round capturing each other and themselves?
Second, and extra vital, I’m all the time struck by the extent to which in the present day’s right-wing politics is pushed by a grim, dystopian picture of America, particularly American cities, that simply isn’t grounded in actuality.
Plenty of this appears to mirror perceptions that congealed way back and haven’t been up to date to mirror the methods during which city America has modified for the higher. New York actually was a harmful place a couple of many years again: There have been 2,262 murders in 1990. Final 12 months, nevertheless, with the pandemic-era bump in crime quickly receding, there have been solely 391 — nonetheless too many — and early indications are that violent crime is constant to fall.
Nationally, violent crime, at the very least in keeping with the F.B.I., is approaching a 50-year low.
These are official statistics, however what about private expertise? I keep in mind New York within the dangerous previous days, and it’s nothing like that now. Polling on crime is exceptional, particularly when damaged down by partisan affiliation: Based on Gallup, 78 p.c of Republicans say that crime is an especially or very significant issue for the nation, however solely 16 p.c say it’s a significant issue the place they stay. That’s not as a result of Republicans stay in safer locations: Solely 15 p.c of Democrats say that native crime is a significant issue.
Crime isn’t the one topic the place Republicans appear to be residing previously. In one other current speech, Trump declared: “We’re like a 3rd world nation. Take a look at our airports. … I imply, how dangerous are the airports?” He could have been considering of La Guardia within the Nineteen Seventies. I not too long ago landed at Newark’s new Terminal A, and it was a hanging reminder of simply how gentrified America’s main airports have grow to be.
