Donald Trump hit the ground running at the Republican National Convention playing off his slogan, “Make America Great Again,” to “Make Our Country Safe Again.” This new slogan then generates a question in the audience’s mind of when was America not safe, what happened, and when did it change? Yes there have been tragedies in Baton Rouge and Dallas but if you look back at history, crime and violence has been pretty steady throughout time. So if this is the case, then why is Trump making an outburst for “law and order?”
The answer is simple, even though crime is relatively low right now; Trump is channeling the issue of crime to represent other worries that the American people might have. He did not think of this tactic on his own, but rather channeling the tactics that Nixon has once used. Trump is reusing Nixon’s tactics similar to the “Silent Majority.” Silent majority is an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their public opinion. United States President Richard Nixon popularized the silent majority in 1969 speech when he stated, “And so tonight—to you the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for you support.” As Nixon was running for president, he was dealing with issues of anti-war protests, violent, and difficult social and cultures more. He channeled the issue of crime to represent these other worries that people might have. When Trump promises to make America “safe again,” he is using crime to represent other anxieties Americans have such as “immigration and pluralism, regional economic stagnation, and international unrest.” It will be hard to convince the American people of something that doesn’t particularly occur but only a business sales man can do the job.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/donald-trump-law-and-order-richard-nixon-crime-race-214066
I can see a strong resemblance of how trump is like nixon in this way. They are both masters at persuasion, and attacking a voter’s emotion really hits home with the American people. Since the beginning of his campaign, trump has used these tactics to his advantage; moving from Islamic terrorism to now domestic crime.