With escalating civil unrest, attacks on police, illegal alien crime, and the rising threat of Islamic terrorism engulfing the nation, the issue of law and order could not be more relevant to the 2016 election.

The conditions of 2016 favor the Republicans indisputably.

Nor could a more potent and valuable weapon for Donald Trump’s electoral success present itself. Indeed, given the extent to which issues of law and order have so far dominated the 2016 news cycle, the election is truly Trump’s to lose. The Trump campaign is very much aware of this fact.

“We started on [Trump’s convention] speech a couple of weeks ago,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, told reporters on Monday. “We looked at previous conventions speeches. The one he focused on, though, was [Richard] Nixon in 1968.”

Nixon built his entire 1968 campaign on law and order, and according to Manafort, it seems Trump is gearing up to do the same. Manafort said Trump will criticize Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for “the same failed leadership in the world that is now causing unrest in the cities.”

The racially charged civil unrest gripping cities across the nation has reached near-epidemic levels. Clinton has not only failed to act in any way to restrain the seditious and violent Black Lives Matter organization, but continues to give the movement her support — despite a number of deadly attacks on police officers inspired by its rhetoric.

[lz_table title=”Public Perception of Race Relations” source=”NBC/WSJ Poll”]

|Percentage saying “bad”

Latinos,70%

White,75%

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

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African Americans,76%

Overall,74%

|Percentage saying “very bad”

Overall,32%

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Trump’s continued focus on this issue is sure to attract voters weary of the ongoing rise in black domestic terrorism. Indeed, Manafort even suggested that the presence of such protesters at the convention itself could only help Trump. “It will show a lawlessness and lack of respect for political discourse,” Manafort said.

In addition to the rising tide of black terrorism in America, Trump will also focus on the threat of Islamic terrorism. Manafort said Trump’s proposed Muslim ban — amended to focus on countries with patterns of terrorism, including certain non-Islamic European countries like France and Belgium — will be a feature of his convention speech.

Once decried as many in the media as crazy and “racist,” Trump’s proposal to place certain restrictions on Muslim migration and subject travelers from certain countries to closer scrutiny is picking up support in the wake of the most recent terror attacks in Orlando, Florida, and Nice, France.

As Politico noted a month ago, “In poll after poll, voters of all stripes have identified terrorism as a top concern” — and Trump has “consistently led [Clinton] by double-digits among voters asked who would be better on the issue of terrorism.”

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The issue of Islamic terror is also a means by which Trump can gain wider support for his proposed border wall. While independents not blinded by an ideological commitment to making America less white already recognize the threat to law and order posed by criminal illegal aliens, those skeptical of Trump’s border wall may rethink their position when they realize that Mohammed the terrorist loves America’s non-existent southern border just as much as Manuel the cartel drug dealer.

In November, 2015, eight Syrians were apprehended trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. In June 2016, The Washington Times reported on a Brazilian-based smuggling network that facilitates illegal entry for Middle Easterners. One such “migrant” was an Afghan man “involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. and/or Canada.”

Since Nixon’s 1968 campaign, the GOP has maintained its reputation as the law and order party. Despite Trump’s significant unpopularity, he still polls ahead of Clinton consistently on the issue of terrorism.

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Moreover, the country is in the throes not only of an increase in violent racial unrest but in violent crime in general. The conditions of 2016 favor the Republicans indisputably.

“As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home,” Nixon said in his 1968 campaign speech.

“And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish: ‘Did we come all this way for this? Did American boys die in Normandy and Korea and in Valley Forge for this?'” Nixon continued.

America in 2016 has striking similarities to America in 1968. If Trump stays true to Nixon’s course, the 2016 presidential election could be strikingly similar to the 1968 presidential election too — a Republican could regain the White House.