From TPM Reader MK:
Was pleased to see your quick post about Webb and criminal justice reform.
Webb does appear to be the new Democratic champion of these issues. I heard him speak at the National Press Club earlier this month. While he’s clearly just learning the field, he’s also courageous on some of the most fundamental points of citizenship and, of course, color. While he’s hung up on locking away ‘the right people’ — without entirely specifying who they might be — he’s willing to think of the problems in ways that can be solved with ‘alternatives to enforcement.’ That’s a sea-change from the ever-increasingly punitive rhetoric and practice Americans, mostly young Americans, have been subjected to for nearly forty years.Anyway, he will, thankfully, replace Joe Biden as the standard bearer among forward-thinking Democrats on this issue.
Of course, over the years Democrats have been horrendous on issues of punishment, crime, incarceration, and all the mechanisms we have to try to prevent these things. Have they been as bad as Republicans? No. Have they been bankrupt and awful? Unequivocally. Biden, Schumer, Cuomo, most of all President Clinton, they have been abominable. You know this, of course. But I’m writing to say thanks for raising this issue on the blog. Democratic blogs have, generally, been as silent on this issue as the Democrat leadership has been negligent and nasty.
Anyway, here’s to hoping Obama and the Democrats show the courage to take on the great human problems of our time in 2009.
