Democrats and the liberal media are incensed that President Trump has criticized the mostly-black city of Baltimore, but not for the reasons you might think.
When Trump calls “Charm City,” as it was described by advertisers trying to boost its reputation in the 1970s, “FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than the situation at the Southern border, he highlights Democrats’ Achilles Heel—the wreckage left behind by their liberal policies, and most especially the damage done to minority communities.
They are terrified that black voters will tune in.
When Trump asked black voters in the 2016 election, “What have you got to lose?” he struck a nerve. One of the most startling elements in his unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton was that he won a higher percentage of the black and Hispanic vote than Mitt Romney in 2012, despite incessant media accusations that Trump was a racist.
It used to be that calling someone a racist was a serious and important charge. No longer. Today some Democrats have determined that not only is the president a racist, but so are all of his supporters. Joe Lockhart, CNN contributor and former press secretary for Bill Clinton, tweeted recently, “Vote for @realDonaldTrump and you are a racist.” That kind of over-the-top insult could get Donald Trump reelected.
People who support the president do so for a wide variety of reasons, but Trump voters whom I know mostly support his economic agenda, convinced that growth in jobs and incomes is essential to delivering opportunity for all Americans. Many believe in the power of free enterprise to deliver the American dream, affording those willing to work hard the chance to improve the lives of themselves and their children.
Trump supporters think that Democrats’ push to increase the role of government through higher taxes and more regulation takes away from America’s vibrant entrepreneurship, which attracts ambitious people the world over.
Trump supporters are also fed up with the kind of mindless political correctness that leads to truly idiotic policy-making. Allowing men to compete in women’s sports in the name of gender neutrality is just plain stupid. You don’t need a blue-ribbon committee of medical experts to know that men are stronger and faster than women; they simply are.
Standing by while thugs throw water on our cops, as has recently taken place in New York City, undermines respect for law enforcement and the safety of our citizens. Does that make sense? Berkeley, California, banning gender-sensitive names is also ridiculous. Changing “manhole” to “maintenance hole” does not move mankind forward.
Every day a story comes along that makes millions of Americans roll their eyes, and renew their commitment to voting for President Trump.
Meanwhile, the left accuses the president of racism for inartfully pointing out that the city of Baltimore is a mess. They are incensed—not at the numerous ways in which that city fails its citizens, but rather because President Trump has suggested rather crudely that the legislators in charge of the city and the district are not getting the job done.
He is right, of course. And, he is not the only politician who has pointed out Baltimore’s failings. Bernie Sanders in 2015 described the city as looking like a “Third World country.”
But because the city is largely black, Trump’s criticisms have been cast as racist. In a recent column, New York Times columnist Charles Blow asserted (again) that Trump is a racist. His proof is the frequency with which the president uses the word “infest.” He claims that Trump’s use of the word, as when he tweeted that Baltimore is “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” or, earlier, when he described the presence of MS-13 “in certain parts of our country” as an “infestation,” is evidence of racism.
The Merriam-Webster definition of “infest” is to “spread or swarm in or over in a troublesome manner,” or, in other words, nothing to do with race. But that is irrelevant.
What is relevant is that Trump’s critiques of Baltimore are on the mark. The past three mayors, all Democrats, have left office in disgrace.
As Seth Barron pointed out in a recent piece, the New York Times Magazine last May ran a cover article entitled “The Tragedy of Baltimore.” The piece cited the breakdown of law and order in the wake of the 2015 riots, which the author describes as “nothing less than a failure of order and governance the likes of which few American cities have seen in years.” As Barron notes, Baltimore has the highest murder rate in the nation.
It also has one of the worst school districts, in which, a couple of years ago, one survey showed that in 13 mostly black high schools, not one kid was proficient in math. In 2018, Prosperity Now research revealed that Baltimore’s black unemployment rate was triple that of whites, while a third of blacks in the city had zero net worth and a median income slightly more than half of that claimed by white citizens.
This is the city the left is defending.
Democrats are opposed to charter schools, which families know offer a rare beacon of hope to inner-city kids, and they want to raise the minimum wage, which will eliminate jobs. Moreover, they raise money through soft drink taxes and lotteries that mainly fall on the shoulders of low-income and minority families. These are among the many reasons black voters, who traditionally vote Democratic, could turn to Trump.
That scares the heck out of Democrats, and that’s why they are so angry that President Trump has dared to pull back the curtain on Baltimore. Racism isn’t calling out the failures of Baltimore; racism is not caring enough to do anything about it.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. For 15 years, she has been a columnist for The Fiscal Times, Fox News, the New York Sun and numerous other organizations. Follow her on Twitter: @lizpeek.