Matt Bai: If Biden runs, he shouldn’t run from his record on crime
Politics
Matt Bai: If Biden runs, he shouldn’t run from his record on crime
These days, it seems that no Democrat can show enough mercy for the criminal, especially if the crime is drug-related. But there was a time in Democratic politics when nothing mattered more than being “tough on crime.” Joe Biden hasn’t yet entered the presidential field, and may not, but already his authorship of a 1994 crime bill is under attack from Black Lives Matter activists and liberal bloggers. No one’s going to argue that the nation hasn’t made serious mistakes in criminal justice over the last 30 years. The problem with much of this criticism is that it lacks historical context and often some relevant facts, writes Yahoo political columnist Matt Bai. There’s a complex and defensible record here for Biden and for the candidates already in the race, if any of them can summon the courage to defend it.
Democratic leaders can’t allow themselves to be drowned out by the loudest and angriest voices in their party – those who would blame everything on law enforcement and the legal system.
Yahoo News political columnist Matt Bai
No one can say with certainty how influential the 1994 crime bill, written by Biden, was in ultimately reversing soaring crime rates. There were unintended consequences and sometimes-tragic missteps. But none of that should obscure the other, inescapable piece of a complicated legacy, which is that a lot of people — mostly black and poor — are alive today who would be dead if the rate of violent crime had stayed on the trajectory it was on in 1994. There’s really no reason that Biden shouldn’t be able to talk about both sides of that legacy.
You’d hope they could stand up to the pressure from their own activists and say: I saw a crisis and tried to do something bold about it, and some of what I did worked.
Matt Bai
