In addition, the Democratic National Committee has begun running campaign ads in which Gore poses with uniformed police officers. At a July 18 appearance in Memphis, Tennessee, Gore outlined his proposal for a constitutional amendment that would, among other things, give crime victims the right to sue attackers for lost earnings and give them input into such matters as sentencing and parole. Republicans denounced Gore's focus on victims' rights as another Democratic attempt to co-opt the policies of the political right. They pointed out that earlier this year the White House vetoed a Republican sponsored victims' rights bill, substantively similar to the Gore proposal, on the grounds that it would erode the constitutional rights of defendants. Victims' rights demagogy on the part of Democrats and Republicans alike is a lever for carrying out new attacks on civil liberties.
Crime is a social problem whose ultimate sources are poverty, unemployment and economic insecurity.
Neither Gore nor his Republican counterpart George Bush is able to address these questions in a meaningful manner. Both parties reject using the federal surplus to increase spending on social programs. On the issues of crime, victims' rights, tax reform, the anti-missile defense system and many other questions, a similar pattern holds. The Democrats advance a slightly watered down version of reactionary positions advanced by the Republicans. Gore's call for hiring more police and prosecutors comes at a time when US prisons are already packed, for the most part with people from the poorest and most exploited sections of the population.