Joe Biden: Lit The Match, Now Wants The Hose

Opinion

A politician as senior as 2020 Presidential candidate Joe Biden would usually use their experience, voting record, and the highlights of their political career to appeal to voters. The hope is that the candidate's record would accurately convey the sincerity of their campaign promises.

However, in the case of Joe Biden, his record puts him at odds with the attitudes and political climate of the 2020 Democratic Party on several fronts. One of the most pertinent issues to those in the African-American community is criminal justice reform. 

To reform is to make changes to something to improve it. Reforming the U.S. criminal justice system is now a bi-partisan issue with a wide spectrum of ideas across party lines. The problem for the former Vice-President is that he in large part “formed” the current system as we know it.

In 1989, Joe Biden made a nationally televised speech to pressure President George Bush to strengthen the "War on Drugs", which led to the country's current state of mass incarceration. 

Former President Bill Clinton signing controversial “Crime Bill” authored by Joe Biden. Photo by ABCnews

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was written by the then-Senator of Delaware Joe Biden. This bill which was signed by President Bill Clinton had a catastrophic impact on the African-American community and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign could not shake this black eye placed on her husband's administration. Coincidentally, Biden now enjoys a lead in the polls both as the Democratic front-runner as well as support amongst African-American voters.

How does Biden avoid the blame for a bill that he wrote when Hillary Clinton suffered significant political damage just for being married to the man that signed it? One reason may be that once the bill is rebranded as Hillary Clinton’s bill, it is hard to reassign its effects to Biden in the next election cycle. A second reason could be… Obama.

Photo by Time Magazine

Former Vice-President Biden enjoys the honor of being second in command to the first Black President of the United States. Many African-Americans trust that Barack Obama’s choice for VP makes their choice for President a no-brainer. What many members of the Black community may forget is that Presidential candidates often pick a running mate that reassures them in areas where they perceive themselves as politically vulnerable. Obama hoped older white voters thought of him with the same simplistic support by the association in 2008. We can imagine those voters thinking, "well if he's okay with Joe, then he's alright with us".

Ironically, Biden earned a reputation of good standing amongst older white voters with policies like the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. The law placed longer sentences on crack-cocaine which was used by poorer and frankly, browner communities while placing far more lenient sentencing on powder cocaine which was more used by whites. This accounts for much of the disproportion of incarceration between blacks and whites in our prison system.

Now here we are, African-Americans have to decide who's agenda best addresses issues plaguing our community and criminal justice reform is as important as any other issue. The question I have for us is simple. What requires more reform, the flawed criminal justice system or the flawed candidate that built it?