Bad news for the "tough-on-crime" crowd.

The Willie Horton era is over.

In the run-up to the midterms, mainstream media, liberal media, right-wing media, Republicans, and Democrats united in a rare show of bipartisanship to tell Americans that Americans don’t feel safe.

The New York Post blasted out cover after cover like this:

“We don’t feel safe,” insisted MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle to Gov. Kathy Hochul. “I AIN’T ABOUT THAT,” screeched allegedly progressive Ana Kasparian last summer when she blamed assaults by a mentally ill homeless man on criminal justice reform—without specifying which reforms, exactly, led to the man being out on the street.

The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico, etc published one million stories about how Republicans were trying to pin rising crime on Democrats—without bothering to dig into whether Democratic policy actually led to increases in crime (it doesn’t). After Chesa Boudin’s recall, prestige national magazines decided, in near unison, that terrified voters had rejected the vision of progressive DAs—even as Pennsylvania’s Larry Krasner sailed through reelection.

The brief moment a handful of Democrats embraced defund without defunding anything was to doom Democrats for decades. On Twitter, Dave Wiegel wondered if Republicans would whip out “defund” to attack Democrats for ten years or “forever.” “Fund fund fund the police,” Joe Biden chanted over the summer, engaging in the partisan performance perfected in the ‘90s: Republicans accuse Democrats of being soft-on-crime, Democrats try to outflank Republicans on crime, and Republicans continue to accuse Democrats of being soft on crime. Even the Brits got involved. A few weeks ago I met a Telegraph reporter in the Bronx on a freezing-ass day to shoot a segment about bail reform with Rikers in the background. The well-produced video also featured Copwatch’s Jose LaSalle, Bill Bratton, a bunch of cops, and a guy from the Manhattan Institute. The video was titled, “How the Left fuelled New York City's violent crime wave | Midterms dispatch.’

It’s supposed to be the full-proof knockout. The Willie Horton. In 1988, William (he became “Willie” only in Republican attack ads) Horton raped a woman while out on furlough in Massachusetts while Michael Dukakis was Governor. Republicans’ dog-whistling about the case is thought to have sunk Dukakis’s campaign.

But it’s been close to half a century since then.

John Fetterman trounced freak Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, despite Oz’s attempts to smear him as “soft-on-crime” because he served on the state’s parole board and opposes life without parole for felony murder.

“John Fetterman wants ruthless killers, muggers and rapists back on our streets, and he wants them back now,” Oz’s campaign claimed in an ad. Oz called Fetterman “pro-murderer” on Fox news just last weekend. He beat Oz by four points in a very purple state.

Any time any crime occurred in New York, Trumpy clown Lee Zeldin blamed Kathy Hochul and bail reform. It was the sum total of his campaign. In this endeavor, he was aided by Democratic lawmakers like Eric Adams, who also blamed every crime on bail reform rather than his cops, who spend their time busting kids for turnstile jumping, even as homicide and rape clearance rates remain abysmal.

Hochul beat him by five points.

Despite the local, national (and even international) onslaught of propaganda about crime, US voters consistently cited the economy and inflation as their top concerns heading into the midterms. A Politico poll found that only 33 percent of Democratic voters ranked crime as an extremely important issue. Abortion, health care—even national security were bigger concerns. 60 percent of Republican voters were concerned about crime, but almost the exact same number were nearly as concerned about inflation, at 59 percent.

The people who are paid money to prognosticate our political future live in the past. For its many faults, the Internet has opened up endless avenues for information. Voters are no longer hostage to the nightly news. Think Pizzagate is bad? In the ‘80s, large swaths of Americans thought day care workers were raping children in Satanic rituals.

I’ll probably regret saying this, but voters aren’t that stupid. Fox News is like, “New York is as bad as the ‘70s” but when you’re in New York it’s … fine. There are piles of trash and you’ll probably see a guy peeing, but mostly you’ll see people lounging around in the city’s beautiful parks and hanging out in the countless outdoor restaurants and bars. Tellingly, Zeldin’s biggest support came from people in the suburbs, not the city. “I don’t take the train anymore,” Ruhle told Hochul. Well, you’re kind of a coward. Move to the suburbs.