With the 2024 election season ramping up, experts are warning that Republicans stoking fears of crime will actually lead to more violent acts by inciting their followers to take matters into their own hands.
According to a report from the Guardian's Adam Gabbatt, GOP office seekers are expected to lean hard into "war on crime" rhetoric as they seek to reclaim the White House and the Senate.
As the report illustrates, in the 2022 midterm election Republicans spent about $50 million on ads that painted America as a "dystopian vision of cities ridden by murder, robbery and assault, and of Democratic politicians unwilling to act."
To which Gabbatt wrote: expect a replay in 2024.
According to Udi Ofer of Princeton University, "They think that’s the way to score political victories,” before adding, "I think there’s a bit of a knee jerk, and, quite frankly, lazy attitude that tough-on-crime is the only way to win an election, despite the fact that we have so much evidence today that shows there are other ways.”
Stephen Piggott, a researcher at Western States Center, claimed the focus by conservatives on immigrants could lead to even more violence due to the rhetoric being used.
“In recent years, there’s been a real mainstreaming of both violent and dehumanizing rhetoric, and it’s espoused by elected officials and media personalities,” Piggott said. "And it’s really served to kind of normalize this political violence. When you have individuals with large platforms, like elected officials and media personalities, and they’re talking about things like an impending civil war, it could lead to folks kind of taking that to heart and then acting on it.”
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