My Biggest Complaint About “Tough On Crime” As A Political Platform

If we could just ban the “tough on crime” as a political ad mantra, we could probably save 15 seconds per commercial. That’s a good thing.

Nobody would ever run on a platform “Weak On Crime”. Spare me that one speech and let’s move on to something more important.

You can tell me how weak on crime your opponent is, but don’t tell me how you will be “tough on crime”. That’s about as wasteful as telling me you will “do a good job”. If you have to tell me you are going to “work hard for…” or you will be “tough on crime”, you must not have anything original or important to tell me. You’re done.

And whatever you do, under any circumstances, never ever say the words “Get out of jail card” in a political ad. If you try to get cute and say stuff like that, it’s over. There is no hope for you.