Some types of crime, including homicide, increased in 2020 and 2021. High housing costs, lack of mental health care, and difficult conditions imposed by the pandemic have visibly contributed to homelessness problems in many major cities. Yet crime rates across the country remain well below those of the 1990s, and deeply Democratic New York City remains much safer than, say, the staunchly Republican state of Oklahoma. But crime as a problem allows Republicans to mobilize voters against Democrats, cities, protests and non-whites. They can say, for example, that Democrats helped create an environment in which police officers became afraid to do their jobs.
The false claim that Democratic support for bail reform south africa phone number list got violent criminals released appeared repeatedly in Republican advertising. Even when a man linked to right-wing plotters broke into the home of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and violently assaulted her husband, the immediate right-wing reaction was to try to portray him as another example of out-of-control crime in Democratic cities. More generally, Republicans have organized their energy around causes that can be described as "anti woke " (" woke " is the term used by the right to derogatorily refer to progressive ideas). Among them may be crime, related to the argument that Democrats are too focused on fighting racism to protect people from criminals.
Much grassroots energy is devoted to “culture battle” themes: that “cancel culture” aims to control speech, thus turning liberals/progressives into true totalitarians; that "critical race theory" is indoctrinating against whites in schools; that the drag queensthey read books to children at their local library or the “gender ideology” taught by teachers precociously sexualizes students; that trans athletes make women's sport unfair. Outrage shifts from one target to another with some regularity, but anger remains at a high level, fueled by the conservative media.