Do Republican or Democratic states have more crime?

One thing that Republicans are really good at is producing a narrative and sticking to it. I guess all of us might do that at least part of the time.

Take Little League for instance. Have you ever heard parents bragging about their kid? “Why he’s the best player on the team. Got three hits and a home run.” Turns out that is true, but it was his total for last season.

No matter. We are all proud of our kids. And there is nothing wrong with a little bragging, even if stretched to its limit. Hyperbole doesn’t normally hurt anyone.

However, we do need to be careful if the narrative we accept is just downright inaccurate, and we base our decisions on falsehoods. Take the crime rate for example.

We have been told over and over again how Democrats are soft on crime. We have been told how Democratic cities and states have higher crime rates. How murder is rampant in Democratic-controlled cities and states.

The Fox network, Newsmax and other right-wing propaganda machines have blamed Democrats for rising crime rates so often and for so long that many of us believe the narrative and have made it part of our knowledge base.

Except it is wrong.

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On the one hand, it is accurate that the murder rate in the U.S. has gone up at an alarming rate. On the other hand, despite the right-wing media narrative to the contrary, this is a problem that afflicts Republican-run cities and states more than Democratic areas.

In fact, in 2020, the per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden, according to Washington think tank Third Way. Think about that. In eight of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020, Americans voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.

The problem is that reducing murder rates is not about pointing a finger at others, avoiding the problem by putting your head in the sand, but rather accepting responsibility for the problem and resolving it.

Fox continuously posts headlines claiming that all-time high murder rates are a Democratic problem, because Democrats are soft on crime. As Fox puts it, police reform is responsible for this rise in murder in Democratic strongholds like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

But the devil is in the details. It turns out that murder rates are far higher in Donald-Trump voting Republican states than Joe-Biden voting Democratic states. This is also true of Republican cities with Republican mayors, such as Jacksonville, Fla. Interestingly, the murder rate in Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco is half that of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and also has a Republican mayor. Make sure you got that. Democrat Pelosi’s district is half the murder rate of Republican McCarthy’s.

Comparing murder rates for all 50 states clearly shows that the Republican narrative that Democrats are soft on crime begs to be debunked.

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The point is that Republican officeholders and their supporters would seem to be doing a better job of blaming Democrats for crime than actually in reducing the crime rate.

According to Fox, murder rates are skyrocketing in New York, California and Illinois. Yet, these three states are not even within the top 10 crime ridden states. And you should note that of the 10 states with the highest murder rates, eight voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and none have supported a Democrat for president since 1996.

These are the top 10 most crime ridden states based on murders per 100,000 residents:

1. Mississippi

2. Louisiana

3. Kentucky

4. Alabama

5. Missouri

6. South Carolina

7. New Mexico

8. Georgia

9. Arkansas

10. Tennessee

Only No. 7 New Mexico and No. 8 Georgia voted for Biden. The remaining eight states are solidly Republican and voted for Trump.

Of states voting Democratic, New York, California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois are on par with the national crime average. Mississippi’s murder rate is four times that of New York and 2.5 times California. The five states with the highest murder rates are all Republican and Trump-voting states.

It turns out that crime is out of control, but the narrative is dead wrong. Based on the real numbers, Republican states that voted for Trump are where crime is out of control.

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And to make matters worse, murder rates are increasing nearly everywhere. Unfortunately the rates are increasing more in Republican Trump-voting states than Democratic Biden-voting states.

Fox would have you believe that the increase in murder and other serious crimes is due to liberal Democratic policies, including police reform. The problem is that the data points to a different conclusion. In fact eight of the 10 high-murder states are not only Trump-voting states, but have been Republican strong-holds for the last 25 years or more.

The point is that Republicans seem to do a far better job blaming others for high murder rates than actually reducing high murder rates. And this is a crime.

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials, promo and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Republicans do a better job blaming others for high murder rates