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Last month, Los Angeles Democratic District Attorney George Gascon narrowly survived a second recall effort—though polling shows that had he made it onto the ballot, he would likely have joined San Francisco's Chesa Boudin as a recalled progressive prosecutor.
Desiree Andrade, who led the recall effort, had this to say: "[Gascon is] playing Russian roulette with our lives." She would know. In 2018, her son Julian was brutally beaten and murdered. His killers should be behind bars forever. But because of Gascon's soft-on-crime policies, they could walk free someday.
My heart goes out to Desiree. She isn't the only victim of Democrats' soft-on-crime policies. In Philadelphia, a mom has resorted to carrying around her son's baseball bat just to feel safe. Residents say it's like living in a "war zone" as cemeteries can "hardly keep up with demand." In Seattle, businesses are simply moving out over safety concerns. Americans just don't feel safe anymore. Statistics show us why: last year 14 major U.S. cities—each Democrat-run—broke homicide records. Violent crime surged, robberies went unpunished, and lawlessness took over. Now six Democrat-run cities are on pace to break the violent crime records set last year.
The crime wave that has swept our country on Democrats' watch was entirely predictable. If you don't punish crimes—and if you don't give law enforcement the tools it needs to keep our streets safe—everything falls apart. Two years ago, Democrats demanded that cities defund their police departments. More than 20 major cities—all Democrat-run—did just that. Crime skyrocketed, and ambush-style attacks on law enforcement, which increased 115 percent in 2020, are now on pace to reach historic levels. Progressive prosecutors from Philadelphia to Los Angeles played their part, pushing for weakened bail policies, no prosecutions for brazen criminals, and downgrading crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Even though crime has skyrocketed in the Empire State, Joe Biden said he wants cities to "follow New York's lead" on violent crime.
As bad as things are, crime levels could get a lot worse. Democrats running for Senate are ready to double down on the Left's radical soft-on-crime policies. In fact, Biden recently praised Wisconsin Democrat Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, who wants to eliminate cash bail, defund the police, slash corrections budgets, and allow inmates to vote. Never mind that in 2018 Barnes said releasing half of the state's inmate population would "make our communities safer."
Similarly, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman (who endorsed Philadelphia's radical District Attorney Larry Krasner) has said that he wants to release one-third of prisoners and "reimagine" policing. This fact should alarm voters; as lieutenant governors, Barnes and Fetterman both oversaw crime and drug overdose death rates that rose to historic heights.
Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mark Kelly of Arizona—both of whom are up for re-election—are no different. They recently joined every single Senate Democrat in opposing a Republican-led amendment to combat rising crime across the country and ensure progressive prosecutors are actually cracking down on criminals. This should come as no surprise. Warnock has a long history of advocating for soft-on-crime policies in Georgia. Mark Kelly's open-border voting record has betrayed Arizonans, inviting an influx of criminals and crime.
To see just how far leftward the Democrats have shifted, look at North Carolina. Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley is the most radical candidate to run for Senate in the state's history. In over 20 years as a judge, she has been soft on cop killers, thrown out the indictment of child sex predators, and helped overturn the sentence of a convicted murderer who shot a young boy in the face.
While the corporate media tries to downplay the crime crisis currently devastating Democrat-run cities, families across the country know they are less safe. The upcoming midterm elections will not just be a referendum on Democratic representatives who, time after time, put the interests of violent criminals ahead of public safety. Voters will also send a resounding message when they elect Republicans: Democrats are not up to the task of restoring order—and they never were. Republicans are.
Ronna McDaniel is Chair of the Republican National Committee.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
