by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
The NYT's Chris Suellentrop and TNR's Noam Schieber have an article and blog post on the change in Republican posturing on crime. Suellentrop details the G.O.P.'s "Jailhouse Conversion"--his words--to the cause of prison reform in the context of the rising influence of religious groups within the party. Whether coincedental or not, this change occured alongide decline of race-baiting as a political strategy signalled by George W. Bush's hugging African-American children compassion agenda. Schieber brings up structural changes, citing Clinton's welfare reform and "tough on crime" stances that helped bring electoral parity to racially-charged issues like crime and welfare.
Both of these are certainly important factors; I would also cite the"family news" trend during the '90s, which tried to push violent crimeand "can your carpet kill you?" stories off of local news in favor ofmore positive stories, as a factor. But changes in the electoral mapalso played a key role.
