It's Halloween and the Fright Monsters are out in force

 

“Fear can have a voice, but it doesn’t get a vote” - Elizabeth Gilbert

Of the top nine issues concerning voters in 2022, found in a recent Pew Research poll, the issue of crime never made a showing.  The top issue is the economy and how inflation is impacting our purchasing power with higher prices for food, energy and housing expenses.  

But explaining the causes of inflation are complex and not easy to pin down on any single factor, though Republicans would have you believe that it’s totally connected to the Party currently in power.  A normal tactic during election cycles for both parties, but one that leaves Republicans egg-faced who use it this year against their Democratic rivals.  Inflation is less governmental action than it is market responses to national and global situations often outside the control of a single player.

While one Party tries to allay the fears of consumers and voters, the other is stoking them, because it is no secret that the use of fear has a strong influence on our political and social choices.  Which brings us back to the issue of crime and how it is being used by today’s MAGA Republicans.  Beware of “politicians and candidates [who make statements] for strategic reasons that extend beyond changing your vote to demobilizing the electorate,” says Leonie Huddy, PhD, professor of political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

When searching on line for results of crime and how it plays into this year’s election, the sources are mainly right-wing media links that exploit one’s fear of this issue. These sources of cromulent editorializations know how conservatives react to notions of a liberal justice system and their claims of alleged lax enforcement standards they say allows many crimes to go unpunished and unresolved.  And though research data doesn’t support this fear-mongering misinformation, it still feeds into the MAGA conservative’s narrative that finds abundant support in campaign rallies in states where crime is the highest.  Like Texas.

I’m sure that last factual tidbit surprises many, especially those “law and order” candidates, who tout unfettered gun purchases and ownership. However, “a report released by the Violence Policy Center shows that states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun ownership have more deaths from gun violence than other states.”

The state of Texas is far from being immune to high crime rates under the Republican leadership of Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton.  It is in the 33rd percentile for safety, meaning 67% of states are safer and 33% of states are more dangerous.

I’ve often found myself bumfuzzled by this ominous threat of criminal violence.  Not that it doesn’t exist in our city and state, but apparently does so far less than the purveyors of fear would have you believe.  In fact, I‘ve recently discovered that my own neighborhood in Denton off Old North Road gets an A+ rating in safety from violent and property crimes, as does much of Denton, in comparison to other regions around us.  You will also find that most districts in Texas that are represented by conservative legislators have equal or higher crime rates than their more liberal districts

As great as the threat of autocrats is to democratic-republics, even greater is the threat of uninformed voters whose choices are made on groundless fears they’ve been conditioned to since childhood.  The countervailing force that helps protect our constitutional guard rails is the informed citizens that is fearless when faced with the virulent voices of disinformation.

Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years of a life sentence in prison for his passionate activism against South African apartheid, taught us “that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  The brave man” he said, “is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”  Words to bear in mind as early voting begins October 24th in Texas.  Be fearless against those who would weaponize fear to hold onto power.