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Criminal justice reform makes sense; Now it’s prove-it time

President Trump and his administration have been pushing hard for criminal justice reform in the past several months.

The key tenets of the plan involve softening sentences on certain offenses and giving second chances to those who have run afoul of the law.

The plan would especially African-Americans, particularly younger African-Americans, who, in the words of the president, “need a second chance.”

These are ideals normally espoused by Democrats and minority leaders. At the president’s news conference on the measure last week, members of the House and Senate who were present indicated there is bipartisan support for criminal justice reform. The president said he’s got his pen ready to sign into law criminal justice reform that carries the main points of the reform he is seeking.

Now it’s prove-it time.

Democrats, poised to take over control of the House in January, have seemed conflicted since the midterm election.

One minute they are talking about making deals with the president and reaching across the aisle to craft bipartisan legislation that will pass Senate muster.

The next minute they are sabre-rattling about impeaching the president and investigating issues relating to the 2016 election that have been probed for two years with little apparent consequential impact.

They don’t seem to be firmly settled on whether they want veteran Congressman Nancy Pelosi or a younger upstart to be the next Speaker of the House.

And somewhere in the mix are the nearly three dozen Democrats said to be at least interested in pursuing the presidency. How will they try to improve their portfolio, counterproductive obsessing over an anti-Trump agenda or flexing their legislative muscles by championing an agenda that solves the nation’s problems?

Sen. Kamala Harris of California, one of the prime presidential hopefuls, on Thursday espoused a perception that ICE agents are viewed as the modern Ku Klux Klan.

If that is going to be the tack of political opportunists, we would suggest that Republicans attempt to get this needed criminal justice reform on Trump’s desk during the lameduck session, before they turn the House gavel over to Democrats.

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