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Joe Biden argued that the 1994 crime bill—which he wrote—didn’t “generate mass incarceration.” It is a straw-man argument that gaslights his critics. It did plenty of damage that Biden is unwilling to account for and @KamalaHarris was right to say as much. nbcnews.to/2VCA3w9
Kamala Harris may very well be an imperfect messenger. The blame for mass incarceration arguably lies more with local prosecutors than with presidents. @jduffyrice laid all this out in 2016. It is still one of the best essays that I’ve read on this topic. bit.ly/2HnxDsv
Biden is correct that the crime bill didn’t generate mass incarceration as a phenomenon, but he positions the argument as if the bill had no net effect on it whatsoever. It’s him trying to bury it without having to deal with the law’s nuances, and he shouldn’t get away with it.
The crime bill did not inaugurate the era of mass incarceration, but it certainly exacerbated its impact. Biden blames the states for escalating the problem, but his bill authorized more than $12 billion to help build state prisons. He conveniently omitted that fact on Wednesday.
Only the uneducated or reactionaries want to lay the entire blame for mass incarceration at the feet of Joe Biden. But he is playing voters for fools if he tries to skate on the crime bill. Invoking the bill’s black support as a shield was gross. Who cares? They were wrong, too!
Biden may want to baptize himself in the holy waters of Lake Obama and hope that black voters will leave their critical thinking skills at home. Some have already, thinking that his mere proximity to the first black president is sufficient to earn their support. I say fuck that.
I’d say the same for anyone running, whether or not he or she had written a bill that gave states tens of billions for their prisons and police, all so Democrats could look “tough on crime” while black folks suffered. Judge each candidate’s record, whether or not they like it.
Biden clearly doesn’t want to grapple with is how his crime bill worsened the culture by mainstreaming the sick “tough on crime” mentality and, at the same time, represented an utter capitulation to Republican models of masculinity and power. And he is still proud of it today!
The debate over Biden’s prideful defense of his crime bill isn’t something that gets solved with a fact-check. Does he respect black voters enough to admit how he fucked up, and talk about how he’ll make amends as president? Now that I’d be interested in hearing him talk about.
