On March 15, 2022, a left-wing advocacy organization called The Third Way published a 15-page study with the provocative title “The Red State Murder Problem.” Written by Jim Kessler, a long-time Democratic policy director to Representative/Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer, and Kylie Murdock, a former intern for Congresswoman Barbara Lee and volunteer for Elizabeth Warren for President, the study states that “murder rates are far higher in Trump-voting red states than Biden-voting blue states.” So that the reader won’t miss the political drift, the authors add, “And sometimes, murder rates are highest in cities with Republican mayors.

The “crime rate” is the number of crimes reported to law enforcement agencies for every 100,000 persons within a given population. It is calculated by dividing the number of reported crimes by the total population. The result is then multiplied by 100,000.

Not surprisingly, dozens of media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Hill, Inside Edition, Politifact, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Magazine, the San Francisco Examiner, NBC News and others, picked up the “study” and breathlessly reported on its “findings.” Even Paul Krugman, New York Times opinion columnist and economist, has joined the echo chamber, albeit with an unconvincing and divorced-from-reality opinion piece wherein he opines that “nobody knows for sure what caused the surge.”

We have a pretty good idea, and many voters apparently are starting to figure it out as well.