Op-Eds

Presidential power is out of control, and our legislature must reassert itself Imagine it’s March 2022. The Republican-controlled Senate has just rejected Speaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, ending any chance of legislative action on climate change before the midterm elections. Heavy rains have caused flooding along the Ohio and Wabash Rivers in Indiana. The governor has called a state of emergency. And with her legislative agenda in tatters and the economy flat, President Kamala Harris sees her chance: She declares a national emergency over climate change, invoking broad legislative powers pursuant to the National Emergencies Act.

One of the most significant stumbling blocks for many new families is the lack of paid family leave for new parents. Every parent knows that those first few weeks and months at home with new babies are crucial and filled with things such as doctors’ appointments and routine check-ups. The amount of time that parents spend with their newborn plays an important role in the parent-child relationship, as well as childhood and adolescent development. Giving every new mom and dad the flexibility to stay home for some of that time is something all Americans would like to see.

Could a conservative populism repair our racial divide? Toward the end of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. turned his attention from an exclusive focus on racial justice to unequal opportunity more generally. The United States was “a nation gorged on money,” he wrote, “while millions of its citizens are denied a good education, adequate health services, decent housing, meaningful employment, and even respect, and are then told to be responsible.” He specifically blamed federal policymakers for “subsidies of the rich and unemployment and underemployment of the poor.”

As a former federal prosecutor, I am clear-eyed about crime. Unlike some reformers, I don’t think our justice system is fundamentally broken, unjust, or corrupt. I have nothing but respect for law-enforcement officials, who put themselves in danger every single day in order to protect the public. I know from experience that dangerous criminals exist — individuals who are incapable of or uninterested in rehabilitation and change. We should throw the book at those people.