>and politicians who push for softening of regulations need to be voted out of office.

I'm not sure I really see a distinction between that and a hardline tough on crime position. Not all laws/regulations are good and even an ensemble of individually good rules could be problematic in aggregate. Though in the current political climate, I would tend to agree that those pushing for reducing regulation are mostly not doing so as part of a well-intentioned effort to reduce adverse effects of regulation for the public good.