Playing catch up in the polls, 74-year-old President Donald Trump appealed to suburban women voters concerned about the racial unrest seen in the cities spilling over into the suburbs. “Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!” Trump tweeted, making a play for suburban white voters concerned about he “cancel culture.” Since 46-year-old George Floyd’s murder May 25 by sick Minneapolis cop 44-year-old Derek Chauvin, the country has witnesses a seizure of protests and violence, prompting riots, looting, arson and anarchy in certain areas. When the street violence started to slow down, the nation watched the “cancel culture” upend sacred statues and monuments around the country, trying to undo certain American traditions, including tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and even George Washington.
When Black Lives Matter called for de-funding the police around the country, the “cancel culture” continued to excuse its assault on age-old American traditions, including celebrating the Fourth of July. When asked about July 4, 32-year-old former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick replied, “It’s not my holiday.” African American protesters fear that when street violence slows down, white society won’t take their demands for change seriously, relegating change back to local, state and federal governments. As long as violence prevails on American streets, groups like Black Lives Matter think it’s applying pressure on all levels of government to change. Once the violence stops, protest groups like Black Lives Mater think nothing will happen. When Trump compares himself with Biden, he’s referring not to Biden per se, but the groups that back his candidacy.
Winning the suburbs is an important strategy for Trump, who’s lost ground during the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 global pandemic, forcing nationwide shutdowns that harmed the U.S. economy. Democrats and the press have adopted the coronavirus global pandemic as proof of Trump’s incompetence, when, truth-be-told, Democrats could do no better. Watching violence in American streets on the nightly news raises fears in suburbanites who once fled the inner cities to get away from poverty and crime. “I think he’s just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing if it sticks,” said Linda Abate, an unemployed bartender in Landsdale, Pa, about 45-minutes North of Philadelphia. Watching urban street violence affects suburban voters not wanting to see lawlessness come to the suburbs. Trump’s law-and-order-message resonates with suburban voters.
Whatever edge the polls give Biden, history is clear that in 2016 former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ran far in front of Trump up till election night. Trump knows that if he can contrast himself with Biden, who’s made promises to his Party’s left wing controlled by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warrant (D-Mass.), he’s go a shot of stealing away voters from Biden. Biden, who presents himself as middle-of-the-road, is actually influenced by his Party’s left flank, demanding Medicare-for-all, free college tuition and student loan debt relief, immigration reform and “The Green New Deal.” No one thinks at this point that Biden is moderate about anything because of his advanced age and dependency on his Party’s left-wing base. While Biden holds an edge in the suburbs today, it doesn’t mean that that lead couldn’t shrink by Election Day.
However suburbs have changed in the last 50 years, there’s still a sense of law-and-order that surrounds the communities. Black Lives Matter wants its “cancel culture” to disrupt the lives of otherwise peaceful suburbanites, complaining that systemic racism infiltrates the communities. Trump wants suburbanites to know that he wants to preserve a more peaceful way of life, not something seen recently in today’s urban areas. Shootings in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, remind suburbanites that street violence could leak from inner cities to American suburbs. Black Live Matters finds itself with growing irrelevancy, as street protests begin to fade off the radar. Texas suburbanite Cynthia Rauzi, living outside Ausin, thinks Trump appeal could resonate with her neighbors looking for reassurance that street violence won’t come to their communities.
Trump’s appeal to suburbanites around the country can’t be dismissed as a failed manipulation because in resonates with voters. Suburban voters want to preserve their block-parties on the Fourth of July, where neighbors share potluck meals and watch fireworks to celebrate the birth of a nation. Black Lives Matter’s “cancel culture,” no longer wanting to take place in age-old American traditions, turns off suburban voters. Whether admitted to or not, the “cancel culture” presents problems for the suburban crowd seeking to end U.S. traditions to highlight “systemic racism,” something that’s happened since the nation’s beginning. “To suggest that suburban housewives are a bunch of pearl-clutchers who are afraid of everything . . . we’re smarter that that,” Rauzi said. While refusing to be gaslighted by new definitions of “racism,” suburbanites still want peaceful communities.
