The Democratic Party heads into next month’s election standing on two very different party platforms. One platform they want everyone to look at; the other they want us to ignore. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the opposite is happening.
The platform they prefer we look at is a 91-page convention document of standard policies that no normal person has read. The platform they want us to ignore has been splashed across our electronic devices in living, fiery color every day now for the past several months. This other platform we can’t escape; it is visceral and very real. It’s as subtle as a riot.
The now more real party platform is on full display in major urban areas — solidly controlled by Democrats — that are on fire, its businesses looted and its citizens threatened with mob violence. But worst of all, the real platform exposes Democratic leaders as unwilling to aggressively stop riotous violence and keep innocent people and businesses safe.
Why? Because the real party platform, as opposed to what’s recorded on the convention document, aligns sympathetically with the aims of the rioters. It is horrific that politics endangers citizen safety in these Democratic strongholds. It’s a sad reality that has not escaped the notice of many voters.
This is a major problem for the party, the party of the forebears on both sides of my family and many others. National Democratic leaders should be nervous that their party is being associated with rioting and violence in the minds of many Americans, including traditional Democratic voters who likely are alarmed at the barbarity that local Democratic leaders have allowed and even fostered. As a result, Democrats have anxiously made monumental efforts, directly and through their like-minded news outlets, to downplay what we’ve all seen unfold on a near daily basis.
The politics of personal safety is a powerful but often under-measured current that can move voter sentiment in ways that aren’t a focus of traditional political polling. Standard political polls have proven to be as reliable as a ’78 Ford Pinto. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from absurdly weighted samples, to ambiguous questions, to respondents flat out lying to pollsters.
Here are some unofficial “polls” that might give a more accurate indication of current voter attitudes in a time of unprecedented violence.
The FBI keeps track of the number of guns sold in the U.S. by licensed gun dealers, and 2019 was a record year for gun purchases in this country. But this year, between just March and September, gun sales have outpaced the 2019 record year by nearly 45 percent — an unprecedented, jaw-dropping increase.
In other words, there has been a dramatic spike in Americans arming themselves that coincides perfectly with the shocking period of Democratic Party tolerance of riot violence. The same period of time when Democratic politicians decided to portray police as evil, when they pulled police protection from the population and eviscerated budgets, and when they quickly released anyone arrested by the police. A gun purchase is a “poll” based on hard data, not capricious opinion. Its stunning jump reflects, in a very tangible way, growing fearfulness throughout the country.
Americans who can are fleeing these downward spiraling urban areas for parts of the country that are perceived to be safer havens. Some of this demographic shift can be explained by COVID-forced options to work remotely. But the remote work option also enables escape from dangerous cities, and the flight we are seeing cannot be ignored as an insignificant trend.
There are now more than 800,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the U.S. Police professionals and their unions traditionally have aligned with the Democratic Party, particularly in the larger cities. This year, however, for the first time, we are seeing police organizations break from long-standing Democratic ties after witnessing party politicians move to strip funding and portray the profession as systemically racist. The attacks by the Democratic Party on law enforcement have resulted in a tide of early retirements and lost experience, and a downturn in police recruiting and morale.
The policing community is tight-knit and includes extended families, retired officers, friends and supporters that make up a sizable voting bloc. Criticism of abusive police actions is entirely fair, and police know this, but the disproportionate castigation of the profession by a political party pandering to violent anarchists isn’t sitting well with a lot of Americans. This deep-seated disaffection may not be adequately reflected in the pools of “likely voters” in which the regular pollsters prefer to swim.
While standard polls focus on the economy, health care and climate change, the politics of personal safety and fearfulness will sweep along below the surface as a powerful, and possibly underestimated, current that may animate voter turnout and results this November in unforecasted ways.
Many Americans are now asking a fundamental question: “Do I want to hand even more power to the political party that has shown a frightening unwillingness to keep the innocent citizens under its care safe?” A party whose real platform is literally a riot.
Kevin R. Brock, former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, was an FBI special agent for 24 years and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He independently consults with private companies and public-safety agencies on strategic mission technologies.