Kerby Anderson

Americans are concerned about crime and will likely vote in these midterm elections based on those concerns. But crime is scarier now, and many politicians who might have addressed the issue in the past, now ignore it.

The first point is the theme of a commentary by Peggy Noonan. She says that “the scary thing isn’t that crime is high, though it is, though not as high as in previous crime waves. What’s scary is that people no longer think the personal protective measures they used in the past apply.” It used to be that you knew not to walk in the park at night. You knew not to be downtown after midnight. But you felt safe going to an afternoon parade.

What has changed? We are no longer just at the mercy of criminals but are now at the mercy of the seriously mentally ill. They are unpredictable. She asks what was “obvious about the shooters in Uvalde and Highland Park? They were insane and dangerous.”

The second point is that we can do something about the crime problem, but many politicians don’t want to address the issue. Kyle Smith acknowledges that Democrats are willing to discuss “gun violence.” But he then points out that most of them show little interest in reducing it because their party leaders are willing to go easy on criminals.

He reminds us that this was not always the case. Senator Joe Biden in 1994 promoted the crime bill that he argued would reduce crime by putting more police on the streets and locking people up. At the time he boasted to law enforcement that he was on their side and claimed to be for any law that would make the streets safer.

The latest survey of voters shows that nearly nine out of ten think crime will be a major issue in the midterm elections. They also know that crime is scarier and want candidates to address the problem that is making the country less safe.