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| Imagine if he did actually do it though? Would be pretteee embarrassing for these folks. |
I was talking about the Troy Davis murder in Georgia from last week with PTSOTL's resident libertarian Mint E. Fresh, and he made a good point that I think is worth repeating here. Not worth it in the sense, you know, that a single person who disagrees will ever even come close to reconsidering their ill-formed opinion -- just, like, a malevolent little mutant opinion with three fingers on each paw, and hoofs and, and, and hairy claws and, like, one eye, and when you look at it you question the existence of decency in the world -- but worth it in the sense that it gives me satisfaction to reiterate the type of insanity we're up against as reasonable people in the world (not liberals specifically, but reasonable people on the whole).
If you'll recall, which I know might be hard since about 5 whole days have passed since we moved on to the next thing to be outraged about, Davis was murdered by the state of Georgia for a crime for which much of the evidence brought against him fell apart in recent years. (Mother Jones story) The infallible, bureaucratic, bloated, incapable-of-doing-anything-right state. No, The State, I should say.
JACKSON, Ga. — Despite his claims of innocence and a roster of high-powered supporters that included the pope, Troy Davis was executed late Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer.
Strapped to a gurney in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison about four hours after his scheduled 7 p.m. execution, Davis, 42, lifted his head and used some of his last words to proclaim his innocence to the family of the victim, Mark MacPhail. Boston Herald
Was he innocent? I certainly do not know personally, but a lot of people seem to think he was. We'll never find out now though, on account of him being poisoned to death by people who we don't trust to even deliver the post, or manage the roads, or teach our kids to not eat paint and boogers all day correctly.
Big government is an obvious ill according to the conservative party line, right? Wait a second though, why is it ok to trust the government with matters of life and death if we don't think they're capable of doing anything else without stepping on the business end of a thousand rakes, like where the rake shoots up and the handle smashes them in the government-face and then their collective legislating pants fall down, and they steal hardworking taxpayer money to throw abortion conferences while Obama is on one of his bi-weekly welfare vacations? That is the same state we're talking about here, right?
My friend didn't see the logic in that. "I'm a small government anti-government conservative who hates and does not trust government. Anyway, let's give government the power of life and death over us." Fresh said, summing up the attitudes of conservatives who were in favor or the execution.
That just doesn't make any sense to me. It's just a failure of self awareness and logical thinking, I said.
"Absolutely," he said. "If you believe the government is, by nature, inefficient, then you can't justify giving it that power. It's indefensible."
And yet on the same Boston Herald story I quoted above, and countless other stories like it in similar newspapers and conservative-leaning websites, there are thousands of comments to this effect:
22 years too late and millions of taxpayer money unnecessarily wasted.
Good. I'm sick and tired of hearing about this killer and as well as Jimmy Carter.
The only reason the witnesses recanted was because they were threatened by thugs trying to get this cop killer off.
Bye Bye scumbag
Nobody lied....This guy was as guilty as sin Read all about it here..........
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2011-09-21.html
Don't actually follow that link if you've got a delicate stomach.
Long story short, here are your two options: You can either bemoan the inefficiency of the state, and argue for smaller government, or you can advocate for an all-powerful state capable of putting its citizens to death, even when faced with overwhelming -- or even any! -- evidence that their original trials may have been faulty.
Which is it going to be, conservatives? Is the state fallible and bloated and a disgrace, or are they our benevolent daddies who we can always trust to punish us when we done wrong?
I'll be here holding my breath waiting for you to reconcile that illogical disconnect.*
*I'm dead.
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10 comments:
This is a good argument and a correct one; a true conservative who is in favour of limited government cannot at the same time support the death penalty just like they cannot support abortion/infanticide.
Ewwwwwww black people, amidoinitrite?
Not your best work but I'm forgiving it on account of the Patriots losing and you're probs sad-mad drunk.
When Brady has a bad day I guess I have a bad day too. Our souls are intertwined like that.
well written.
Yeah but I'm never going to be black enough for this to present an actual problem, so I don't see the conflict.
more discussion going on here if anyone cares to chime in. as always, your comments on PTSOTL are appreciated.
http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/if-you-support-the-death-penalty-you-are-no-longer-allowed-to-be-conservative/#comments
A simple and reasonable piece here, which is exactly why no one on the other side will notice it.
Part of the "limited government" that conservatives advocate for includes the responsibility of protecting the public and enforcing the laws. Conservatives just don't want the government in those aspects of life that they believe are capable of being regulated by the private market.
Torture is more effective than the death penalty, there's no doubt about this!
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