Dems About to Lose Again on This Issue.

Will they ever learn?

I hate to put it bluntly, but frankly that’s what I’m best at: it’s not that Republicans are that smart – they’re not, trust me. It’s that Democrats are apparently that dumb.

I’m generalizing of course, but as I watch in utter frustration as President Trump and Republicans prep for another fight they will easily win, I have to wonder if Dems actually enjoy losing.

In his ongoing attacks on liberal urban voters, Trump is now turning his ire on crime in our nation’s capital and our legislators’ second home: Washington DC.

In a Sunday night Truth Social post, he wrote:

“We’re having a News Conference tomorrow in the White House. I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before. The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border. We went from millions pouring in, to ZERO in the last few months. This will be easier — Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Earlier last week, he suggested he would “FEDERALIZE” DC to “put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”

In typical fashion, he’s using hyperbolic language and both morally and legally questionable policy solutions to address a nevertheless real problem. And Dems, I fear, are going to handle it all wrong.

Rather than admit something that’s obvious to anyone who’s spent even a little bit of time in DC in the past few years, which is that the city looks, feels, and is unsafe, they will embark upon the time-honored Dem tradition of willfully losing the argument to Republicans.

Here’s the playbook – see if it sounds familiar:

1. Allow an obvious problem like gang violence, carjackings, shoplifting, organized retail theft, drugs, homelessness, or illegal immigration, to metastasize unchecked.

2. Ignore it long enough for Republicans to discover and own it.

3. Rather than join them in their anger and concern, righteously tell voters the problem doesn’t exist.

4. Insist voters are racist, sexist, xenophobic, or stupid if they believe the problem does exist.

5. Indignantly and condescendingly point to charts and stats proving, if only nominally, the problem isn’t *technically as bad as Trump says it is – because charts and stats are how people decide what to feel.

6. Wait for Trump to speak insensitively and offensively about the problem, and hope that makes the problem go away.

7. Defend the criminals instead of the victims.

8. While doing nothing to solve the problem, wait for a shining example of the problem to emerge and give Republicans a chance to nationalize it. Like this one. Or this one. Or this one.

9. Oppose obvious solutions because they are suggested by Republicans.

10. Cede both the problem AND the solution to Trump.

This performance has been repeated and repeated by Democrats for years, ever since Trump was elected. And despite the fact that it’s a losing playbook, Dems keep running it in hopes that THIS time, it will somehow magically work.

This played out nationally in 2024, when former President Joe Biden and other Democrats told voters there was no migrant crisis, the economy was great, and crime was down. This wasn’t how voters felt. And they showed it at the polls in November.

I travel to DC frequently, as recently as three months ago, and there have been many times I’ve felt unsafe. I also used to live and work there in the mid 2010s. In my short time there, I had my wallet stolen out of my purse, my car broken into, and items stolen off my now husband’s porch. (This, after 13 years in New York City when I didn’t have so much as a pocket picked.) Since then, several friends have been jumped, robbed, or carjacked in Metro DC.

Whether you want to call them anecdotes or not, examples of violent crime over the past few years abound, including most recently a vicious assault against a 19-year-old DOGE worker in Northwest. Police eventually arrested a pair of 15-year-old suspects.

But rather than acknowledge the obvious thing – residents and tourists alike feel unsafe, here was DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on MSNBC over the weekend, right on cue with charts and stats, insisting “We are not experiencing spikes in crime”...right now.

The latest numbers may be correct – and welcome news, of course – but they do not reflect how people feel and have felt for years. That’s because of an endless string of incidents over the past few years like this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. Mind you, this is all while House Dems voted to reduce penalties for violent crimes in DC, including carjackings.

When elected Dems in big cities downplay crime, or point to numbers meant to make crime seem like less of a problem, voters respond. Unkindly.

In the midst of a Chicago violent crime wave Dem Mayor Lori Lightfoot insisted the city was right on track fighting crime. Voters disagreed and ousted her in 2023, making her the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose re-election.

George Gascon, the Los Angeles District Attorney who said he felt safe living in LA County, was also voted out in 2024.

After pushing soft-on-crime policies in San Francisco, such as decriminalizing “quality-of-life” crimes and alternatives to incarceration, DA Chesa Boudin was also summarily voted out in 2022.

These were Dem leaders, voted out in Dem cities, by Dem voters.

So you don’t have to take my word for it that this insane playbook isn’t working for Democrats – just ask their constituents.

Democrats, in their defense, are right to be repulsed by Trump’s categorization of problems, his use of racist dog whistles to amplify them, and his proposed solutions that often run afoul existing law, the constitution and common decency.

He will overplay his hand on DC, just as he’s overplayed his hand on deportations. But this is what Dems never seem to get until it’s too late: he’ll still get credit for acknowledging the problem in the first place, and doing something – anything – about it. Rather than get there first, Dems insist on arriving last, or even not at all.

Why are Dems stuck in this pattern? There are lots of reasons. A reflexive aversion to everything Trump. A real and genuine belief that they have the moral high ground on every issue. A reliance on special interests that benefit from broken systems. A belief that Trump is so bad they do not need to offer a competing agenda. A belief that bigotry is the only impulse motivating Trump voters. A blindness to what voters see as common sense.

So instead of meeting voters where they are – which is scared, exasperated, and angry – they seem to believe acknowledging the problem at all would tarnish the Dem brand.

I’m not sure how much worse the Dem brand could get, though. And Trump is about to win another fight – just in time for midterms, if Republicans are lucky.