Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump deployed federal law enforcement officers in Washington, DC, a miracle has happened.
We have heard a squeak of gratitude from the city's Democratic mayor.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser admitted: 'We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what [the Metropolitan Police Department] has been able to do in this city.'
And guess what? It's working. Carjackings alone have dropped 87 percent she said, adding: 'We know that when carjackings go down, when use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, so this surge has been important to us.'
Trump brought the National Guard onto the streets of the nation's capital on August 11 and, whatever one thinks of Trump's show of force, the effect has been unmistakable.
When the state looks muscular, the streets tend to behave. It's not a political philosophy or social experiment so much as a maxim of human physics: mass meets motion.
The facts and feet on the ground -- officers on corners, tactical vans prowling corridors where carjackers once trolled -- assert themselves more persuasively than any cable news panel discussion, Capitol Hill lecture or social media squabble.
One might think every leader of every political stripe would celebrate the news of a safer city and more secure citizens. But rather than singing cautious praise for the effort, many Democrats are still squawking off-key.
Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump deployed federal law enforcement officers in Washington, DC, a miracle has happened. We have heard a squeak of gratitude from the city's Democratic mayor
Speaking on Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser (pictured) admitted: 'We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what [the Metropolitan Police Department] has been able to do in this city'
Consider Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's recent appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' Joe Scarborough tried, more than once, to coax a simple acknowledgement that adding more officers can be part of a solution.
The mayor pirouetted around the premise like a ballet dancer in a bull ring. It was archetypal comic-tragic television, the kind that makes jaws drop and coffees go cold. Mayor Johnson's refusal to admit a logical fact did not read as principle; it read as an allergy to common sense.
To many viewers around the country, especially in those swing state suburbs, the implication was crystal clear: If Johnson can't admit we might need more cops in Chicago, what on earth is he doing in the mayor's job? What are Democrats possibly thinking?
The political reality is that voters want order, and the Democratic Party is, for the most part, once again proving itself incapable of reading the room.
According to a new AP-NORC survey, 53 percent of Americans back the president's actions to tackle violent crime. A majority -- 55 percent -- say it's acceptable for the US military and National Guard to assist local police in major cities.
The public is more cautious about Washington seizing full control of city departments, however; only about one-third support such an extreme measure.
Still, the underlying tone is unmistakable: 80 percent consider crime in big cities a serious problem. The same survey records Trump's highest approval rating to date, up five points in the past month.
In politics one doesn't need unanimity; one needs a working majority plus momentum. Those numbers give Trump both, although it is important to note that other surveys, with the questions posed differently, present a less favorable view.
Trump's critics call his act authoritarian theater; his supporters call it taking the problem seriously. Fair-minded citizens should demand careful guardrails -- body cameras, clear rules of engagement, independent review -- because all humans are flawed and power is a complex tool.
As a country, we can and should debate and demand civil liberty safeguards, oversight, education, and the dangers of mission creep. That's civic hygiene.
But it is unserious and insincere to pretend that, in the city that writes our laws, a stronger law enforcement presence won't deter lawbreakers.
According to a new AP-NORC survey, 53 percent of Americans back the president's actions to tackle violent crime
The political reality is that voters want order, and the Democratic Party is, for the most part, once again proving itself incapable of reading the room
Deterrence isn't theoretical. Thieves and carjackers perform their own risk-reward calculation on the curb, not in a grad seminar.
If high-crime zones are flooded with tough, trained people who carry legal authority and the tools of the trade, the probabilities and outcomes change.
For decades, Democrats won city halls with a promise to keep neighborhoods livable.
Now, too many of their party leaders present public safety as an impossible philosophical labyrinth, a precious landscape dotted with politically incorrect rhetorical minefields, rather than as a basic street-level, quality of life necessity.
Republicans, and Trump in particular, thrive when opponents make the simple look complicated.
Historians of the future may someday unravel how Trump keeps drawing adversaries who obligingly help him make his point. For now, we can only shake our heads in wonder.
Democrats could meet this moment with something sturdier than semantic hedging. They could state unequivocally that crime is a bad thing. That protecting innocent citizens is, constitutionally, an important governmental role. And that law enforcement can be infused with empathy and paired with community trust, youth jobs, drug treatment and moral rectitude.
The capital's crackdown may not be durable; criminals adapt, and big cities are ever-shifting, gargantuan organisms. Yet politics is measured in months, not millennia.
If voters believe the streets feel safer this summer because a president made them feel watched and seen, Democrats will again learn a lesson they used to teach: governing means choosing and choosing safety is not a moral compromise.
Too many Democratic leaders are reaching for euphemism, as if plain talk about policing might break the spell of progressive credibility.
But the secret is out; the spell has been broken; and Americans are stepping over the shards and demanding safety.