This week marks First Responders’ Day. It’s a unique chance to consider the crucial role that first responders like police, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics play in our society. And it’s an opportunity to give our thanks for the brave sacrifices these fine Americans make in order to keep all of us safe. As we reflect on the bravery of our first responders today, it’s important to remember that supporting them is a year-round job. Unfortunately, first responders need our support more than ever: they have been facing a brutal, sustained campaign of demonization from Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.
Today’s Democrats have transformed defunding the police from an extreme fringe concept to an accepted, mainstream left-wing talking point. Prominent Democrat leaders like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have been unerringly consistent in their calls to undermine law enforcement. Unfortunately, their poisonous message has taken root with Democrat leaders nationwide. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles defunded their police departments in order to appease the far-left members of the Democrat Party. The results were predictably devastating.
Crime is surging across America, including in many of those cities that defunded their departments. According to the FBI, murders are up 25% nationwide -- a 4,000 murder increase from 2019 to 2020, the most recent year with full data. Americans specifically living in Democrat-run cities are experiencing a tangible crime spike that will only get worse thanks to Democrats’ never-ending quest to undermine support for our brave law enforcement officers. It bears mentioning that a vast majority of Americans oppose defunding the police. Unlike Joe Biden and his fellow Democrat elites, they actually feel the brunt of rising crime in their communities firsthand.
As if stripping resources from police weren’t enough, Joe Biden and Democrats are now forcing an unconstitutional vaccine mandate which has further destroyed confidence among the ranks of first responders nationwide. To be clear, I am pro-vaccine. However, I do not support forcing free Americans to choose between their livelihoods and a government-enforced medical procedure -- especially for those Americans who risk their lives to keep us safe. In states like Massachusetts, Washington, California, and Illinois, first responders are being fired, resigning, and threatening to walk off the job in droves. Nurses aren’t exempt, either: the brave medical first responders who carried us through this pandemic are now under attack as well. Nurses nationwide are being suspended, fired, and threatened as Democrats pressure them with their divisive agenda. This is how Joe Biden repays the medical professionals who risked everything to fight on the front lines of the pandemic: with a cruel, totalitarian ultimatum.
None of this is logical. It makes no sense to defund police as crime rates skyrocket. It makes no sense to fire nurses during a pandemic. Unfortunately, Biden and Democrats aren’t operating on logic. They’re operating on the principle that appeasing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her socialist cohort is more important than keeping Americans safe, supporting first responders, and showing gratitude to nurses. This pattern of disrespect for first responders is easy to discern and extremely disappointing. Should we have expected anything less from the administration featuring a vice president who likened border patrol agents to members of the Ku Klux Klan, and then refused to lift a finger as those agents grew overwhelmed as the humanitarian crisis at our southern border spiraled out of control?
Demonizing police during a crime surge. Firing nurses during a pandemic. Abandoning border patrol agents during a historic border crisis. Joe Biden does not care about first responders, has no respect for the sacrifices they make on our behalf, and is pitting Americans against each other. Meanwhile, today and every day, the Republican Party gives our heartfelt gratitude to those brave Americans who risk everything to keep us safe.