In these final days of the 2022 Midterm campaigns, the GOP has played its “crime” trump card. It’s a familiar racist trope that has been used for years by Republicans to scare White people into voting for them. Sadly, it works. “Crime” is the age-old euphemism for Black people. After all, it was Lee Atwater who developed the Southern Strategy under Reagan and the Republicans successfully leverage it with regularity. Case in point, George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Mike Dukakis with the infamous Willie Horton ad campaign.

What the GOP won’t tell voters is where the crime is really happening. You guessed it, in red states. In a recent report by Third Way entitled The Red State Murder Problem we find that murder rates are highest in cities run by Republicans. In 2020, eight of the 10 states with the highest murder rates voted for trump. GOP hypocrisy and lies are boundless. In fact, the biggest criminal appears to be trump himself, the titular head of the Republican party, with at least 55 uncharged criminal offenses since 2015.

So, what is the answer? Democrats must fight back with messaging that frames Republicans as the party that is anti law and order to include the fact that most, if not all, of the GOP does not follow or adhere to the U.S. Constitution that they claim to love. It is the GOP that refused to condemn the trump insurrection of January 6th and whitewashed the violence against Capitol Police officers. It is also the GOP that is fomenting The Big Lie. Democrats’ messaging should continue to drive this point while also emphasizing public safety.

November 8th is election day. If we are to preserve the U.S. democracy, get out and vote, and when you do, VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot. Don’t cede the U.S. democracy to a fascist GOP.