The Missing Issue: The death penalty vanishes from national politics

One of the lessons the Democratic party learned in the 1980s was that it could not run candidates at the national level who opposed capital punishment. The lesson sank in after the 1988 presidential debates, in which Michael Dukakis was asked whether he would favor it if someone raped and murdered his wife. He said no, with the same emotion he would have shown in response to a question about farm price supports. The exchange entered the lore of campaign mistakes. In the three following presidential elections, the Democrats nominated candidates who favored the death penalty.

But for the first time in 16 years, they have nominated an opponent. John Kerry used to oppose the death penalty altogether; now he opposes it, with an exception for terrorists. Yet the issue has been largely absent from the campaign.

One reason it hasn't figured more prominently may be that the political class has a dated perception of public-opinion trends on the issue. During the late 1990s, the drop in public support for the death penalty was widely noted. In the Gallup poll, support dropped by 15 points between September 1994 and May 2001. In 2000, the issue was to some extent used against Republicans. Democrats portrayed Bush as too bloodthirsty in his approach to capital punishment as the governor of Texas, thus making Gore out to be a moderate supporter of the death penalty.

Yet even at the time, the death penalty was still fairly popular. That May 2001 poll found 65 percent of the public saying that they favored "the death penalty for a person convicted of murder."

What's more, support has been rising since September 11. Gallup's May 2004 poll showed 71 percent support and 26 percent opposition. Asked whether the death penalty was imposed "too often," "not often enough," or "about the right amount," 48 percent of respondents to that poll said not often enough (while 25 percent said the right amount and 23 percent said too often). While my colleague Byron York has written about the recent increases, almost nobody else has.

The falling salience of crime as a political issue has undoubtedly reduced the power of the death penalty as an issue. But I suspect that for many voters, a candidate's opposition to it is still a sign that he is too liberal and out of step with their values.

Raising the issue might, of course, conflict with the Bush campaign's desire to court Catholics. But Catholic voters are, for better or worse, not with the Catholic hierarchy on the issue: That May 2004 poll found them to be slightly more pro-death penalty than the public at large. (They favored it 75-22 percent. Fifty percent of Catholics thought that the penalty is imposed too infrequently, and only 20 percent that it is imposed too often.)

It could be that Republicans are not using the death-penalty issue because it is seen as more of a state issue than a presidential one. I'm not sure that voters make that distinction. But even if they did, there are federal issues here. States' practices are constrained by the federal courts, and there have been some signs of renewed activism on the question from the liberal justices on the Supreme Court. And Washington politicians can, to some extent, make issues where they will. Senators Jon Kyl and Orrin Hatch have introduced a bill to expedite the federal review of states' death-penalty sentences in cases involving the murder of police officers. A real presidential push for that bill would, presumably, yield another Kerry flip-flop.

Will Bush make the death penalty an issue in the last weeks of the campaign? If not, we will have to grant Bill Clinton another political triumph: On his watch, the death penalty stopped being an issue that kills Democrats.

Not all terrorists. Kerry and the DNC reserve
nuclear weapons (including buster bombs) for ONLY any terrorist
group which gives enough money to the DNC coffers.

Additional DNC funding promises secrets stolen by Berger
and internal files obtained by Gorelick.

1. Insurgents = Muslim murderers
2. Militants = Muslim murderers
3. Guerrillas = Muslim murderers
4. Secessionist Chechen rebels = Muslim murderers
5. Revolutionaries = Muslim murderers
6. Arab fighters = Muslim murderers
7. Rebels = Muslim murderers
8. Armed Gang = Muslim murderers
9. Resistance fighters = Muslim murderers
10. Iraqi resistance = Muslim murderers
11. Palestinian freedom fighters = Muslim murderers
12. Assailants = Muslim murderers
13. World Trade Center Bombers = Muslim murderers
14. Bombers = Muslim murderers
15. Suicide bombers = Muslim murderers
16. Shoe Bombers = Muslim murderers
17. Perpetrators = Muslim murderers
18. Attackers = Muslim murderers
19. Radicals = Muslim murderers
20. Kidnappers = Muslim murderers
21. Hostage-takers = Muslim murderers
22. Gunmen = Muslim murderers
23. Captors = Muslim murderers
24. Commandos = Muslim murderers
25. Hamas = Muslim murderers
26. Hezbollah = Muslim murderers
27. Activists = Muslim murderers

Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels.
So wound their bodies and incapacitate them
because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”

Qur’an 8:57 “If you gain mastery over them in battle,
inflict such a defeat as would terrorize them,
so that they would learn a lesson and be warned.”

ONLY A PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST MURDERS AND PLOTS

1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Saudi Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on it goes .........

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.