Duel over law and order – VG

This week, President Donald Trump visited one of the hotspots of the conflict, the city of Kenosha in the state of Wisconsin. On Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden arrived in town with 100,000 residents on Lake Michigan.

Trump has made law and order a key issue in the election campaign. Although he is currently the sheriff of the United States, he assigns full responsibility for anarchy to the Democrats. The riots take place in cities where Democrats rule, the president said. No one will be safe if Biden becomes president, he tells voters.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden accuses Trump of ruthlessly exploiting the situation and says that all Americans are less safe because Trump cannot do his job as president. We must not become a country at war with ourselves, he says.

On August 23, a 29-year-old man, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back and seriously injured by police in Kenosha. It sparked large demonstrations, like in other American cities this summer, when black men were killed or injured by police. Some took advantage of the situation to destroy and burn buildings.

Two days later, the situation in Kenosha dramatically deteriorated when two people were shot dead. There were both protesters and self-proclaimed civil protectors on the troubled streets. Police arrested a 17-year-old white man and charged him with a double murder. A few days earlier, a white man had been killed during a counter-demonstration in Portland, Oregon, where anti-racism protests have continued throughout the summer.

The question is who wins because law and order have become a central issue in the electoral campaign. Is it Trump who says only he can fix it, or is Biden who thinks he’s the right person to defuse the tension? Trump says that Biden is too weak to restore order and that he is ruled by radical forces who want to destroy the country. Biden accuses Trump of dividing the people and that the damage could be irreparable if he is re-elected.

Trump is playing a well-known card that Republican candidates have drawn in the past. Richard Nixon used law and order in his successful election campaign in 1968. But unlike Trump, Nixon was then a candidate, not a president.

As in the 1960s, the fight against racism and discrimination has become topical again. There is deep division and social unrest. The rhetoric is harsh and irreconcilable. Both candidates describe scenarios of doom if the other party wins.

Elections can be decided in states like Wisconsin, where small twists are needed to tip the outcome one way or the other. Trump barely won in Wisconsin in 2016, despite all the polls suggesting that Hillary Clinton was going to win. Biden leads in Wisconsin, but Democrats have no reason to feel safe.

The national gathering of the Democrats focused on three crises: the pandemic, the economic recession and the fight against racism. They accused Trump of failing in all areas. At the Republican National Convention, there was less talk about the pandemic than about law and order.

As usual, the president does not take responsibility when something goes wrong during his term. Radical Democrats are to blame for the vandalism and looting. In the pandemic, China, the World Health Organization (WHO), and democratic governors were the reason the United States was hit so hard.

On Twitter, he calls those who demonstrate under his banner “GREAT PATRIOTS”, while the other party is “troublemakers and bullies.” When asked about the 17-year-old accused of killing two people during the Kenosha protests, he was more understanding: – I suppose he was in big trouble. They would likely kill him, Trump said at a news conference.

The president is far less concerned about the events that triggered the demonstrations than about what happened afterward. He praised the police and allowed them to depict him in burned ruins in Kenosha instead of meeting Jacob Blake’s family. Biden must balance supporting peaceful protests against discrimination while distancing himself from violence and destruction.

It is not only a question of order, but of law and justice. On a fight for equal rights and treatment.

The president scares with violence and chaos if Biden wins. Trump may win at this if white voters in the Midwest fear that insecurity will soon stalk their neighborhood. In political advertising, the Trump campaign features images of burning buildings and the slogan: Jobs, not mobs! Democrats respond with an announcement in which Biden says the riots and looting are not protests, but something to be prosecuted.

Trump is on the offensive and Biden has had to respond. The battle is over insecure voters in tipped states like Wisconsin. The crises that have hit the United States have to do with the basic security of its citizens. On the insecurity that the black minority lives in the United States. About a pandemic that threatens life and health, and about a recession that generates financial uncertainty.

– Do you really feel safer with Trump? Biden asks rhetorically. It is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s question to voters in 1980, after four years with Jimmy Carter in the White House: “Do you feel better than four years ago?” Voters said no. This time, safety is at stake.