{"id":267238,"date":"2020-09-01T04:30:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T08:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267238"},"modified":"2020-09-01T04:30:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T08:30:20","slug":"republicans-have-used-a-law-and-order-message-to-win-elections-before-this-is-why-trump-could-do-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/01\/republicans-have-used-a-law-and-order-message-to-win-elections-before-this-is-why-trump-could-do-it-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans have used a ‘law and order’ message to win elections before. This is why Trump could do it again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This firsthand experience with violent crime informed Trump\u2019s hardline views on criminal justice and could serve him well now as he crafts a law-and-order election strategy to try to defeat Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election. (File Photo:<\/a> Donald J. Trump\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1991, Donald Trump\u2019s mother, Mary, was mugged<\/a> on a New York street. As Trump\u2019s niece recounts in her new book<\/a>, the young assailant slammed Mary\u2019s head into her Rolls Royce so hard, her brain haemorrhaged.<\/p>\n

This firsthand experience with violent crime informed Trump\u2019s hardline views<\/a> on criminal justice and could serve him well now as he crafts a law-and-order election strategy to try to defeat Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election.<\/p>\n

A president cruising to an almost certain defeat<\/a> \u2013 with the deaths of 175,000 Americans (and rising), urban unrest, a tanking economy and an impeachment trial all on his watch \u2013 has hit upon a key issue that will make him competitive in November.<\/p>\n

With the possible exception of a vaccine for COVID-19 being found in the next two months, Trump could hardly contrive a more potentially effective campaign theme.<\/p>\n

History should give Trump reasons for optimism. The presidential elections in 1968 and 1988 provide a template for Republican victory on a law-and-order platform. Indeed, each of those previous elections presents a parallel that should concern Biden \u2014 and which he must counter.<\/p>\n

Nixon\u2019s pledge to restore \u2018order\u2019 in 1968<\/h2>\n

When Trump was 22, he saw Republican Richard Nixon run a campaign against a Democratic party and administration struggling to deal with widespread political, social and racial unrest.<\/p>\n

In April 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., sparked rioting<\/a> in Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago and Kansas City \u2014 all Democratically controlled cities.<\/p>\n

With then-President Lyndon Johnson refusing to run again<\/a>, and with his likely successor, Robert F. Kennedy, himself assassinated<\/a> two months after King, the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, floundered.<\/p>\n

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\nRead more:
\nWinning the presidency won’t be enough: Biden needs the Senate too<\/a>
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At the Democratic national convention in Chicago<\/a> that summer, shocked Americans watched as police beat anti-Vietnam war protesters outside the building. Inside, Democrats were split between pro- and anti-war candidates. Capitalising on the latter\u2019s inability to cohere around a single candidate, Humphrey won the nomination by default.<\/p>\n

But the unrest proved insurmountable. Uniting the increasingly warring wings of his party was beyond him.<\/p>\n

In response to the social upheaval, Humphrey fell back on ambitious projects to redress racial injustice. His \u201cwar on poverty<\/a>\u201d theme, however, rang hollow as Americans saw their cities in flames and sons dying in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Nixon offered a simple law-and-order alternative<\/a>. He would later cement this appeal by describing a \u201cgreat silent majority<\/a>\u201d of law-abiding men and women ignored by leftist ideologues.<\/p>\n