The Power of Propaganda
By Hank Silverberg
I have a friend on Facebook who is educated and in general, a nice person. She's a relative of a good friend and we have been communicating over the last few years during much of the Trump Administration. She has totally bought into much of the Republican propaganda that has been raging since 2015. Every time she sees something she thinks is new, she sends me a direct message trying to prove once again that President Biden is bad and Democrats are ruining the country.
Crime has always been a political issue. Richard Nixon used his "law and order" theme to help him win the presidency in 1968 after a particularly violent period in our history that included some anti-war protests and two political assassinations (Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.).
First, let me confirm that the nationwide homicide rate so far in 2021 is up from 2020. For example, murders are up 22% in Chicago and 56% in Minneapolis. But that's not the whole story. Like most propaganda, the Republicans highlight these numbers and some high profile cases, but they leave out the facts. There have also been big spikes in murders in Tulsa, Oklahoma where the crime rate is higher than 97% of other U.S. cities. In Fresno, California, the homicide rate is up 35%. Both Tulsa and Fresno are run by Republicans. The percentage hikes are compared to 2020, when most people stayed home because of the pandemic. The best rational comment I've seen on this comes from Yale University law professor Elizabeth Hinton. Hinton told the Associated Press, "instead of linking this to COVID and mass unemployment and general anxiety, they’re saying that somehow calls to defund the police are behind this, as a way to justify more policing as a response.”
The GOP says the spike in crime comes from the "defund the police" efforts after last summer's protests. But very few cities have done ANYTHING to lower police budgets. And the crime rate across the country is actually down for other offences like robberies or drug violations. It is logical to expect a spike in all criminal activity if police department budgets had been significantly cut.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/homicides-gop-misleads-claims-blame-78196565
To hammer my point home, here is the lead paragraph of a Time Magazine article published on August 4, 2021:
Anew report from the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) presents data showing that murders have risen 16% in many major American cities over the first 6 months of 2021, as part of what is being widely viewed as a new wave of crime and violence across the U.S. But according to the report, when compared to the same time period last year, the pace of the increase in murders has slowed down from the first quarter of 2021 through the second: In the first quarter of 2021, homicides rose by 23% compared to last year. In the second quarter, they rose by just 10%.
U.S. Homicides Continue to Rise, While Other Crimes Decline | Time
There is nothing to back the GOP claim that the problem is cities run by Democrats. Increases in homicides, at a time when overall crime is going down, is much deeper than which political party is in charge. There are many other reasons. The GOP's effort is just more propaganda leading up to the 2022 Congressional elections.
Of course I told my friend this too, but she wasn't listening.
Red and Blue
States ranked by percentage of population fully vaccinated: Sept. 10 (beckershospitalreview.com)
the numbers are also up, with more than 6,000 Texans dying from the virus in the last month.
COVID Cases, Deaths Notably Worse In Red States Than Blue States: Report | HuffPost
The connection here is pretty obvious.
General Lee Update:
General Robert E. Lee is gone from Richmond. As I mentioned in last week's blog, the city finally won its battle to remove the statue which had stood in a prominent spot on Monument Drive for 131 years. There was lots of media coverage as his statue was taken down from it's pedestal, cut in two, and then hauled off to an undisclosed place where it will be stored until they decide what to do with it. Of course there was a great deal of nonsense during the 16 month battle to remove it about rewriting history and the like, but the facts are clear. Lee was the commander of a rebel army trying to destroy the United States over a dispute about slavery. He was defending the right to keep four million people in bondage in a war that killed 600,000 Americans.
Here's a follow up story that had me both laughing
and screaming at the same time. Missouri State Representative Tony Lovasco, a Republican, says since Lee's statue has been removed, we need to also take the statue of President Lincoln out of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. 
(Courtesy NPS)
"If we insist on tearing down statues of reprehensible people, let's at least be fair and balanced about it," he said.
He says Lincoln was reprehensible because he conscripted people into the Union Army to fight the Civil War, and he suspended the right to Habeas Corpus as part of his war powers. Habeas Corpus is the right to be brought before a judge after you are arrested.
Well yes, Lincoln did do those things, which were heavily debated at the time. There were draft riots in New York City at one point during the Civil War that were put down by Federal troops. But Lincoln did those things to save the United States from splitting in two. A number of presidents have done worse during times of war.
The whole idea of removing Lincoln is ridiculous, but it's just a good example of the nonsense we are hearing from the GOP and conservatives these days across the country. Just for the record, Lavasco did clarify later he was not saying that he supported the Confederacy, but it's clear he has no idea why Lee's statue and other Confederate monuments are offensive to a large part of our population in the 21st Century.
Dumbest Quote of The Week:
Speaking of the ridiculousness, this week's dumbest quote comes from Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio. He found some video footage of University of Wisconsin football fans crowded into a stadium watching a college game. The 70,000 Badger fans were all shoulder-to-shoulder, and many were not wearing masks, though they were encouraged to do so even in the outdoor stadium setting.
To many of us that presented a big concern about a super spreader for Covid 19. But Jordan retweeted the video with this comment:
"Real America is done with #Covid-19, God Bless."
Well, Wisconsin is a nice place, but there is much more to the "real America" where more than 669,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 in the last year and a half. That included 8,613 in Wisconsin. Mr. Jordan needs to pay more attention to real people, including real doctors and real scientists.
(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)
(Copies of my latest book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:
HankSilverberg@gmail.com
for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with a signature)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796
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