Fear, as the saying goes, is a powerful motivator. That’s why despots use it. And political campaigns.
Given his past rhetoric about immigrants and terrorism, it is not surprising that fear was the theme of Donald Trump’s speech Thursday night as he accepted the Republican Party’s nomination as its candidate for president.
“Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation,” Trump said at the beginning of his speech. “The attacks on our police and the terrorism in our cities threaten our very way of life.”
“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities,” he added.
Recent violent incidents — the killing of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, the murder of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida — are horrible tragedies that we should work to prevent from happening again. But, overall, the crime rate in the United States has dropped significantly in recent decades. The number of law enforcement officers killed each year also has declined by more than half since the mid-1970s. Fatal shootings by police have been on the rise, with black Americans killed at a rate disproportionate to their percentage of the U.S. population.
Scare tactics like Trump’s work because the public doesn’t know and often doesn’t believe statistics that debunk the notion that America has become a scary, crime-ridden place.
“Most people with whom I have spoken simply will not accept that things are better today than they were 10 years ago — or, for that matter, that America is safer today than it has been for a long, long time,” The National Review’s online editor, Charles C.W. Cooke, wrote in November. “All told, this is rather strange, because the data are quite clear. Yes, America still has a host of problems, and violent crime and gun-related-crime are among them. But those problems are decreasing, not increasing.”
Much of the fear Trump seeks to create centers on “illegal immigrants,” whom he wrongly said are pouring across our borders and roaming the streets threatening American citizens. In fact, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. has dropped since 2005 and has leveled off at about 11 million people.
More offensive, and inaccurate, is Trump’s characterization of undocumented immigrants as criminals. A column published in The Wall Street Journal last year had strong words for the candidates in the GOP presidential primary who didn’t call out Trump’s statements on immigration for what they were: “as ugly as they are uninformed.”
“They might start by pointing out that numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants — regardless of nationality or legal status — are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or to be incarcerated,” Jason Riley of the Manhattan Institute wrote in a piece titled “The mythical connection between immigrants and crime.”
Once he painted a picture of America in crisis during his convention address, Trump billed himself the “law and order” candidate and pledged that “safety will be restored.”
He, however, didn’t say how. Policing has long been a local endeavor. Will Trump call out the National Guard? Mobilize the U.S. military to patrol neighborhoods? Will he equip police officers with more military-style weapons and gear?
Armed members of the military patrol the streets in countries facing true chaos or where dictators need such force to maintain their hold on power. This shouldn’t be the case in the U.S.
America has a long tradition of hope and ambition. We are a country, as Trump said in his speech, “of believers, dreamers and strivers.”
We are not and should not become a country of people who cower in fear.
