Each inauguration of a new presidential administration is a time of new beginnings and an opportunity to commemorate the endurance of our democratic form of government. For the forty-fourth time in American history, the Executive power vested by Article II of the Constitution has been passed from one person to another. By my tally, those transitions have more often than not been across party lines (24 times). And yet, power has been transferred peacefully (not including assassinations of course) and by the rule of law, never by force of arms or dictatorial edicts. No matter how contentious our political campaigns may be or how strongly people take opposite sides on points of political divide, our commitment to the rule of law and constitutional governance runs deep.
On this day of new beginnings, most Americans are investing great hope in our new President, Barack Obama. To be sure, some of us harbor trepidations about what may come. But today let us focus on our hopes. Whatever may be the overall grade that we might give to those who have inhabited the White House in recent decades, surely we all can agree that each of them left office with some accomplishments for which they deserve praise. As but one example, even many of his fiercest critics have singled out President George W. Bush’s work to stem the plague of AIDS in Africa. When President Obama ends his term in 2013 (whether or not he is elected to a second term), for what do you think he will justly be praised?
So let me invite the members and readers of the Mirror of Justice, whatever their political preferences and however they may have cast their ballots in November, to share their most optimistic prognostications. What one or two things do you believe most likely to be accomplished by President Obama that will advance the common good as understood within the general parameters of Catholic teaching. Please suggest something on which there would be widespread consensus among faithful Catholics that the result indeed would qualify as a positive accomplishment. I do not mean to exclude suggestions on which there may be disagreement about the effectiveness of the measures likely to be adopted by President Obama to address a particular problem. Our ongoing debate about means will certainly continue. Rather, I ask only that we look today for common ground on the ends that we all as faithful Catholics would celebrate.
I’ll start the ball rolling. With respect to accomplishments and positive changes by the Obama Administration for which I am most hopeful, I am cautiously optimistic about new thinking on criminal justice that reflects a greater appreciation for the human dignity of those who are accused of crimes, particularly non-violent and first-time offenders. For decades, politicians of both parties have enthusiastically supported ever more draconian prison terms for every type of criminal trespass, thereby pounding their chests in front of their constituents to demonstrate that they are tough on crime. As a result, our prisons are filled with young men and women convicted of relatively minor drug and other offenses, while their families are wounded, their futures are damaged, and the public pays huge costs while not being made any safer.
President Obama appears to “get it” on this question, although it admittedly may require expenditure of political capital for him to do something about it. In my view, he shouldn’t be overly worried about the political reaction. During the closing days of the presidential campaign, Republicans trotted out Rudy Giuliani to argue that Barack Obama was weak on crime because he purportedly “opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders, drug dealers, and murderers.”
It is worth repeating again what then-Senator Obama actually said in 2004:
I think it’s time we also took a hard look at the wisdom of locking up some first-time, non-violent drug users for decades. Someone once said that ‘…long minimum sentences for first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and-or heal people from their disease.’ That someone was George W. Bush—six years ago. I don’t say this very often, but I agree with the president. The difference is, he hasn’t done anything about it.
As I wrote back during the heat of the campaign, “Senator Obama rightly recognizes that our society is suffering from its unwise and cruel policy of imposing lengthy minimum sentences on non-violent and low-level drug offenders. And Senator Obama is quite right that the Bush Administration, to its shame, has done little or nothing to change the situation, instead falling back into the same old, unthinking approach of promoting rigid and harsh sentences without full consideration of the nature of the offense or the offender.” I hope now-President Obama and his appointees in the Department of Justice do bring change and new thinking about criminal prosecution and sentencing policies in the next four years.
Greg Sisk
