Ooooo, Dennis, I think you're overstating your case. Or put differently, I agree - but you've mixed your causal sequence, need to be careful in the political groupings you're using, distinguish different levels of the police state, and don't confuse the short-term with the long term trends.
In some ways, I'm surprised that the Democratic Party has taken so much heat recently. When has the Democratic Party been any different than they are now? Now that requires tons of qualifiers but then again have not they, as the party who for thirty-some odd years controlled Congress, passed the legislation expanding criminalization, weakened civil liberties, authorized surveillance, etc.? I could be wrong but I don't remember the calls to bring back the death penality singularly rising up in Democratic Party circles. On the other hand, they didn't muster much resistance either. But the Dem. party has been in some significant way a johnny come lately to leading the charge on law and order stuff having been badly beaten by Nixon and a decade later by Reagan. Even Bush sr. trumped Dukakis on the all too familiar _perception_ that Democrats were soft on crime. Dems have jumped on the bandwagon but I think the initiatives arose elsewhere.
To be sure you're correct that conservatives _have_ taken some progressive positions and I stand corrected. My goodness, George Schultz wants to do drugs? Cool. Then again, you could also compare the positions taken or words spoken by the Reagan or Bush administrations when they were in power. Alternately, Clinton and Gore are hardly synonymous with the left or liberals. I'd wager that lefties and liberals, not now employed by the federal government, have been the most vocal about crime and the criminal justice system. And on one additional hand, you need to consider the predominance of Republicans as governors or controlling the local state legislatures for explanations of some intensified criminalization and punishment. The extra million in jail got there through more than the actions of the federal government.
And while Illinois' governor did indeed impose the moratorium, it couched quite cautiously and besides the guy's himself a criminal so it might say something about the progressive views of criminals...
And to return to the beginning, the eight years of Clinton/Gore seems more like continuity than not. And with the arrival of W. I suspect the feds will continue to pursue whatever it is they've been doing. This is just speculation, but is it conceivable that the shrub would curtail the drug war? Decriminalize pot federally? Open up more drug rehab clinics? Sponsor needle sharing? Do you really see Dick Armey, Tom Delay, Trent Lott taking progressive positioins on law and order?
The Dems are the _chief_ supporters of the drug war and capital punishment is like saying death is a symptom of cancer.
Dennis Breslin