Not this Year; not these Democrats: Lawlessness leads to looming election losses

Lawlessness, to borrow the old slogan, is unhealthy for Jews and other living things.  Such as healthy societies. And, I suspect, the Democrats’ chances of election victory.

There are still undecided voters out there—or so, at least, they tell pollsters. I suspect that a headwind facing Democrats will push late-breaking votes toward Republicans, particularly among Jewish voters: the sense of expanding lawlessness.  There is a palpable feeling out there of an accelerating societal breakdown and a disintegrating social contract, of authorities surrendering to the mob, and of menacing, unpunished violence and crime.

My hometown of Seattle illustrates these nationwide trends too well. Until recently an unusually clean and safe major city, Seattle is now renowned for its overwhelming drug-addicted homeless population, dominating downtown streets and taking over parks and public spaces with their sprawling encampments.  Lawlessness abounds.

In fact, lawlessness has become the tolerated norm. It is excused by politicians, rather than addressed. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Seattle Police even surrendered a precinct and ceded control of an “autonomous zone” to “largely peaceful” rioters and thugs. The subsequent rapes, shootings and murders within the eight square block area did not faze the mayor (who assessed the situation as “a block party” and part of a “summer of love”) or the indulgent City Council, which enthusiastically slashed police budgets as the rioters demanded.

Unsurprisingly, Seattle violent crime rates keep rising to record levels; but the rate of solved crimes and prosecutions keeps plummeting. Ditto for for theft and property crimes. Shoplifters go unpunished, and an increasing number of store items are stocked only behind locked glass—which hardly promotes sales; retail stores and pharmacies cannot absorb the skyrocketing losses from theft, and are closing in sobering numbers. Lawlessness is so widespread that some 70% of light rail riders skip fare payment—perhaps excusable, considering the soaring numbers of assaults on passengers.

Normal, law-abiding citizens, however, are starting to push back. Seattle, where Donald Trump received just 8% of the vote in 2016, may yet be a long way from swinging Republican, but it has already tossed aside the most radical members of its city council. Similarly, Los Angeles voters are rebelling against their Soros-backed, insanely soft-on-crime district attorney. Still, an uncomfortable sense of anarchy and insecurity lingers.

Recent episodes have given me first-hand experience with lawlessness and the frustration it engenders. That frustration fuels election forces which may well defeat Kamala Harris and most down-ballot Democrats nationwide, particularly incumbents.

Last month in Seattle, I posted an ad to sell inventory of copper pipe and pipe fittings which belonged to my late father (a contractor), with a retail value over $4,000. A polite young man  agreed to purchase the entire lot for $2,000. We loaded up his car with the copper—and off he drove without paying. I already had his name, address, phone, and paper trail of our communications; plus, I contacted two metal recyclers near where he lives who each confirmed that he is a known customer. I provided all this information in my report to the Seattle Police, who thanked me for doing my homework…but soon informed me that they did not have the manpower to pursue the matter beyond filing the report.

Such evidently serial criminals operate in the current environment with stunning impunity, knowing that he need not fear any police response no matter how airtight the case against him.

Don’t get me wrong—I love the police, and have the deepest respect for their service. But they are understaffed and overwhelmed. They are handcuffed by a noxious combination of  increased lawlessness and decreased manpower.

In fact, that was my third police interaction in the past two years.  My father’s van was stolen from in front of his house; a neighbor saw the thieves driving it away and called the police immediately—catching the thieves could have been done in minutes.  But understaffed Seattle Police will only take reports of stolen vehicles from the owner—and even then, have so few units in the field as to preclude rapid response to such “minor” crime.  Gone.

And last year, someone walked into the county recorder’s office with a badly forged deed to a parcel of land we own adjacent to our house.  Despite its glaring irregularities, the county duly changed the ownership of record.  I filed a detailed report with the police including providing the name of a possible suspect.  Yet, even with real estate ownership at stake, the police did not have the resources to pursue the matter.

In terms of police response, I am an unhappy 0 for 3.

But misery loves company, and I am hardly alone; such incidents have become a plague on the city’s law-abiding citizens.  The costs of crime to civil society dwarf whatever savings come from defunding (or, as Kamala Harris says, “reimagining”) police forces.  If you think police are too expensive, wait until you calculate the price for defunding them.

So, back to the main point: American Jews, among voters generally, feel particularly endangered by this civilizational undoing. They are conscious of being a small, mostly defenseless minority in a world where antisemitic currents never totally disappear.  For years, the grace and unprecedented decency of American society allowed Jews to flourish and feel secure in America as nowhere else in diaspora history.

That security is no illusion—so long as America stays true to being “a nation of laws” applied equally; a nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal;” and a nation where antisemitism is socially taboo and offends the national conscience.   Jews have reason to dread when that taboo is shattered; when antisemitism increasingly and publicly bubbles to the surface, yet is decreasingly punished or even rebuked; and when it becomes normalized and common enough to numb the conscience to it.  It mirrors the dread of lawlessness, with which antisemitism goes hand-in-hand.

As lawlessness has surged in the US in conjunction with the Biden-Harris presidency, American Jews feel its effects most acutely.  The stories of cancellation, intimidation, mob protests and physical attacks aimed at Jews (whether or not “Zionist”) now cascade too fast to keep track.  Synagogues and Jewish schools everywhere require armed guards and Homeland Security grants.  In the United States of America.  That should trouble everyone.

Just days ago, an identifiably Jewish man walking to synagogue in Chicago’s Jewish neighborhood was allegedly shot by a Mauritanian national, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi.  Chicago authorities initially appeared too cowed by potential political fallout to draw any obvious conclusion and charge Abdallahi with a hate crime (though, after a public outcry, they eventually did so).  Chicago’s mayor spoke of the shooting—but without mentioning the ethnicity of either the shooter or victim.  In Brooklyn, a visibly orthodox Jewish man was slashed in the face by someone in a ski mask spewing antisemitic rhetoric; yesterday, it was an assault on a Jewish boy riding his bicycle to school.

Will justifiably-nervous American Jewish Democrats think twice about voting for the party that has overseen this wave of anarchy?  That has even applauded it?  That has facilitated the flood of millions of unvetted illegal entrants into our cities?  That has allowed the drug cartels to poison and kill 100,000 Americans per year (from fentanyl alone)?  That has allowed the flourishing of sex slavery?  That defunded our police departments, while an ever-smaller fraction of criminals are arrested and prosecuted?  That solicited donations to free violent rioters and lawbreakers arrested during the Black Lives Matter riots (in the case of Kamala Harris), or that let cities burn rather than call in the National Guard to restore peace, law and order (Tim Walz)?

Are Jewish voters really going to put power in the hands of the people who allow and facilitate such lawlessness, and who excuse the destruction of societal norms?  And who have neither the backbone or the will to re-assert authority or enforce the law?

We shall see.  But note that the Biden-Harris administration of lawlessness has coincided, ironically with a surge in registrations.  Of guns.  And Republican voters.

I also note that our friends on the board of Democrats Abroad Israel resigned en masse due to anti-Israel hostility from the party, even in the face of the October 7 Hamas murders of members’ immediate families.  For many Americans, particularly Jews, I expect (and advocate!) a similar reaction.

A significant number of traditionally Democrat-voting Jewish Americans will swing Republican in this election.  Essentially, they will say what needs to be said: Not this year. Not these Democrats.

About the Author
Abe Katsman, a Seattle native, is an American attorney, consultant, political commentator and writer living in Israel. He serves as Counsel to Republicans Overseas Israel.