Election Day is only a couple of months away, and a friend brings to my attention a new poll from Pew Research:
This seems relatively unsurprising except for one thing: violent crime. Why is that #5? A followup chart explains it:
Among Trump voters, violent crime is #2 behind perennial favorite “the economy.” Why? Because Fox News and the rest of the gang have spent the past few months screaming about cities in flame, BLM “riots,” and crime capitals of the world. In fact, though, the best evidence we have suggests that overall crime is down so far this year. So is overall violent crime. The only thing that’s up is homicides. Through the first half of the year, there have been a few hundred more than in 2019.
Now, a spike in murders is no small thing. There’s something going on there, and we don’t know what it is. Still, those few hundred additional homicides are dwarfed by a drop in other violent crimes that measures in the thousands. And property crimes are down by tens of thousands. Generally speaking, you’re likely to be considerably safer in a big city than you were last year.
This is just one example of the broader fact that Democrats and Republicans simply care about different things. Here’s the Pew data arranged by the issues most important to Democrats and Republicans:
Republicans care about crime, immigration, and guns. Democrats barely even notice these issues. Conversely, Dems care about the pandemic, race inequality, and climate change. Republicans could care less about them. We are living in two different worlds.
