By any fair measure, 2020 was a nightmarish year. Americans confronted a deadly contagion. And a recession. And the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. And higher crime rates. And social unrest. For Republicans, this is politically inconvenient. GOP officials keep trying to tell voters that they’re worse off now than they were four years ago — reality notwithstanding — but it’s impossible to look back with a sense of nostalgia for the final year of Donald Trump’s term.
Second, the truth is that violent crime rates really have fallen in every year of Biden’s presidency. That’s not a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of quantifiable data. A recent NBC News report added that the murder rate in the United Sates in 2023 plummeted “at one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded.” Third, it’s been genuinely bizarre to watch Republicans play calendar games in recent years.