The isolation does not follow from the dovetail. Another dovetail exists with the general population, the overwhelming majority of which, last I looked, supports the right to choice.
>To say it is "popular" is not quite apt. Like saying
>root canal is popular. It is seen as justified, if
>regrettable (for all the reasons raised).
I'm not sure I agree. I think there is a high degree of lust involved in the death penalty. Perhaps Yoshie is right dragging in anti-hedonism --- repressed sexuality leading to a twisted sexualization of state-sanctioned murder ... a collective rape fantasy?
>Nobody has responded to my query about why working
>people are more supportive of capital punishment than
>those w/higher income.
A wild guess: the working class is more imbued with the propaganda of hard-work individualism. Those at the top know better. When workies see murder, they think "There's someone not playing by the rules --- in a bad way". The leisure of the upper classes allows them some distance from the struggle, perhaps a recognition, however dimly, that the game really isn't that fair, hence the easier recognition of the the murderer as one of us.
I'm not sure I buy all that, though ... why don't you try rephrasing it? Higher income generally equals higher education. Apply the the transitive law and I think you've got an equation with a fairly obvious solution:
Wealth = Education (Greater wealth usually due to higher education)
Education = 1/Death (Education leads to opposition to death penalty)
or:
Wealth = Education = 1/Death
and by the transitive law:
Wealth = 1/Death
Needs more work, though.
Bill