Law and order is not just a racist dog whistle. Yes, from George Wallace to Donald Trump that rhetoric has been used as a dog whistle. Yes, every discussion of crime and policing needs to include the outrageous racial disparities that permeate the system. At the same time, it is true that the first job of government is to establish order so people can feel secure. Democrats do not have an effective anti-crime posture at a time when crime is surging. In New York City, for example, while murder rates fell, overall crime was up 37 percent in March compared with a year earlier, driven by a 59 percent increase in grand larceny auto, a 48 percent increase in robbery and a 40 percent increase in burglaries. Shootings went up 16 percent. According to a Gallup poll, 53 percent of Americans now say they worry a “great deal” about crime.

Don’t politicize everything. Education has traditionally been a Democratic strong point. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in 2006 found that voters trusted Democrats over Republicans to do a better job handling education by over 20 points. When the Post-ABC poll asked about the issue last November, the advantage was down to three points. Part of the drop is probably the teacher unions’ preference to keep schools closed during the pandemic, part may be the attacks by some progressives on magnet schools and gifted programs, part the perception that progressives care more about their cultural agenda than actual education. Republicans have certainly politicized education, too, but for some reason it seems to work for them while it doesn’t for Democrats.