The onslaught of confrontations between blacks and the police, as well as intense coverage on TV and online of college campus protests and of the Black Lives Matter movement, have decisively affected the Democratic Party’s position on a core issue: the use of force to maintain public order. …
These shifts would not be taking place without changes in the composition of the Democratic electorate – changes that have brought to prominence issues important to African-Americans and Hispanics. Nor would the Democratic move to the left on matters of crime and punishment have occurred without the steady drop in rates of violent crime since the early 1990s. CONT.
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times