To quote the old Vulcan proverb, “Only Nixon could go to China.”

The first governors to push criminal justice reforms through were Republicans like Rick Perry, Chris Christie, and Bobby Jindal – and they likely succeeded because no one thought of them as “soft on crime.” Welfare reform only became law at the federal level when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, admitted it was needed.

If you want a particular policy goal — “change policy X” — the need for change is most compelling when it comes from a person who is traditionally a defender of policy X. And that defender of policy X will be trusted to implement changes in a way that a traditional critic of policy X will not.