President Trump seems to think he can tout himself as a Law-and-Order President while disparaging Joe Biden’s Tough-On-Crime history.
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In 1972, moderate Republican Governor of Massachusetts Francis Sargent signed into law a bill that would start a state inmate furlough program for any criminal not convicted of first-degree murder. However, the following year, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts ruled the program must be extended to all inmates.
One man who championed the program, both as a state representative and as governor, was a liberal by the name of Michael Dukakis. Dukakis later secured the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1988, meaning he could take on Vice-President George Bush.
While many commentators say, rightfully, that Dukakis’s “soft on crime” policies were what caused his loss, what many don’t realize was, for a while, that was his biggest selling point. For the past eight years, President Ronald Reagan had tried various “tough on crime” policies, which did not end up reducing crime. Dukakis took a very liberal attitude towards criminal justice, believing the purpose of prisons should be to rehabilitate prisoners. He even said during his first debate with Vice President Bush that if his own wife was murdered, he would still not support the death penalty.
Such stances drew much criticism from Dukakis opponents, such as then-Senator Al Gore in the primaries and Vice President Bush in the general. But the attitude of “well your ideas have failed, why not give me a shot, at least I’m nice,” was strong in the United States. What Bush needed was an example of Dukakis’s policy going so spectacularly wrong that it would make any other system look better.
Enter a man named William Horton. In 1972, Horton had murdered a 17-year-old boy at a gas station, leading him to a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1986, Horton was let out of prison for a weekend but did not return. The following year, he was convicted of rape (and many other offensives) in Maryland. The judge who sentenced him, Vincent Femia, refused to bring him back to Massachusetts, saying:
“I’m not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again.”
While Horton played an important role in the 1988 campaign (Bush’s campaign manager, Lee Atwater, even said “By the time we’re finished, they’re going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis’ running mate.”) the Bush campaign never mentioned him by name. The ad most people remember as “the Willie Horton ad” was actually made by the NSPAC and produced by Larry McCarthy.
The ad in question (officially titled “Weekend Pass”) used Horton as an example of how Dukakis treated first degree murderers, compared to Bush’s solution of just giving them the death penalty. This ad caused people to turn against Dukakis, and Bush was elected President in 1988.
Why did I spend all that time recapping political history from three decades ago? Because, to put it simply, the Trump campaign wants to create a Willie Horton ad while also portraying Biden as Bush on crime.
On the 7/24/2020 edition of my podcast, Peaceful Globalist Review, I played two ads from pro-Trump PACs, the America First PAC and Donald J. Trump for President Inc. Each ad contained very different attacks on Joe Biden. The first one argued that if Joe Biden becomes President, he will defund the police and America will become more dangerous. The second one showed Biden’s history of mass incarceration and supporting tough on crime policies, which includes broken window policing.
According to the Trump campaign, Biden is going to arrest us all for minor drug offenses using police he defunded. Who’s going to enforce Biden’s tough on crime laws once he defunds the police? Ben Shapiro?
A smarter campaign would be using this contradiction to its advantage. Imagine Biden running an ad pointing out that Trump can’t even keep his own attacks straight, before asking how he could sensibly run a country. Or, for that matter, a Trump ad comparing Biden’s recent calls for police reform to his many decades as a “tough on crime” Senator.
And make no mistake, Biden was a “tough on crime” Senator. From writing the now infamous 1994 crime bill (which many Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, said was too soft), to being against the legalization of marijuana last year, to once trying to ban raves. It would be interesting to see why Biden changed his mind on criminal justice after all these years. But instead, we’re getting two contradictory claims about Joe Biden from Trump’s campaign, whose principle doesn’t seem to realize the contradiction.
In large part, Donald Trump has backed himself into a corner here. This is the man who wants to run on a “law and order” platform. Even ignoring the amount of “law” he applies to his buddies, and the fact that if the people wanted “order” they would have voted for his establishment opponent, this is the same administration that also wants to brag about criminal justice reform, in the form of the FIRST STEP Act.
Criminal justice reform has been a bragging point of the administration because despite his supporters saying “liberalism is everything that’s bad,” they also brag that they did something liberals have been arguing for for years. Not to mention, previously popular policies like three-strike laws are now considered examples of Democratic racism-despite Republicans also supporting them, but you know.
If Trump wants to win re-election, he needs a consistent campaign strategy. On crime, Trump couldn’t be more inconsistent.