Good News, Bad News
Bubba
25 Sep
The number: According to a Wall Street Journal analysis, homelessness in the U.S. is on track for another record high in 2024, showing a 10% increase from 2023. (WSJ)
On the other hand, the latest FBI data shows violent crime fell an estimated 3% last year.
Chart: The Wall Street Journal
Context: There’s a narrative, especially among conservatives, that neglectful policies have pushed American towns and cities into a state of decay marked by rampant drug use, crime and vagrancy.
Donald Trump in 2017:
Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public, but for too many of our citizens a different reality exists. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge, and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
Bubba’s Two Cents
I don’t want to get into the weeds on the current debate over crime statistics except to say I think there are good reasons to conclude that violent crime, especially homicide, probably is down.
The other thing I’ll say is that Trump’s doomsaying vision of “American carnage” seems to resonate with a lot of people these days. And there is a case for it - rising homelessness and the opioid crisis aren’t figments of anyone’s imagination. Will voters buy the narrative in November?