80s GOP success in suburbs was partly due to crime. Yet the immigration issue...

[Matty]

in the current political paradigm is actually making the GOP toxic in the burbs. Does anyone else find this at least somewhat paradoxical?

The crime moral panic in the 80s was based on fear and “safety concerns”...similar arguments younsee today with hardline immigration folks and trump.

Wouldn’t you at least expect similar fear and moral panics in the suburbs to manifest itself against open borders and liberal immigration laws, too, like it did against crime and drugs in the 80s? That issue was divisive as well and also had a hint of racism/fear of their towards it.

The willie Horton ad was really not that much less obvious than trump’s pat minute ad this cycle. The former helped give bush giants marigns in suburbs, the latter hurt republicans deeply.

Perhaps there is a difference in Suburban response to these issues because the burbs themselves are changing?

[Sumner 1868]

Suburbanites want a racial underclass to use for cheap labor.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Crime was a huge problem in the 1980s especially In Urban Areas

[darklordoftech]

- The suburban demographics at the time were different.
- The 80s crime rhetoric said, "we're not worried about blacks as long as they don't commit crimes", while today's immigration rhetoric says that the very presence of immigrants is a threat.
- Crime was perceived as being disproportionately perpetrated by teenagers, so the crime issue appealed to anxiety about single parents, permissive parents, underage drinking, teenagers valueing their friends over their family, truancy, teen smoking, sexually active teenagers, the media's perceived influence on the young, etc.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

- The suburban demographics than were different.
- The 80s crime rhetoric said, "we're not worried about blacks as long as they don't commit crimes", while today's immigration rhetoric says that the very presence of immigrants is a threat.
- Crime was perceived as being disproportionately perpetrated by teenagers, so the crime issue appealed to anxiety about single parents, permissive parents, underage drinking, teenagers valueing their friends over their family, truancy, teen smoking, sexually active teenagers, the media's perceived influence on the young, etc.

[The Mikado]

You're ignoring the biggest difference between the two eras: violent crime actually was through the roof in the 1980s, while it's near 50-year lows today. The rhetoric has no matchup with people's lived experiences now when violent crime of that sort is super rare vs when it was very relevant then.



You were literally twice as likely to get murdered 30 years ago as you are now. That's a gigantic dropoff.

[darklordoftech]

- The Willie Horton ad came from a Super PAC, not from HW or Atwater. HW was able to deny having approved the ad.

- Without the 24-hour news cycle, partisan media, and the internet, people were far less conscious of dog whistles in the 80s than they are today. Even the rhetoric used to push for the Invasion of Iraq would likely be considered alt-right today.

- Not as many voters voted based on crime issues as people think. There was a poll shortly after the 1988 election that showed people were sick of hearing about crime and were more concerned about economic and foreign policy issues.