On Monday, January 13, 2003, at 02:08 AM, Chris Burford wrote:
> I was wondering about the lack of reference on this list to George
> Ryan's dramatic decision to pardon all Illinois prisoners on death
> row. Apologies if I missed something. The story played strongly in the
> news media in the UK, where the intelligentsia is against the death
> penalty, even though the majority of the population probably still
> report it (they have given up doing polls). The death penalty also
> separates Europe from the USA. It places the USA in the same league as
> China, and I am not sure if ithe USA actually comes first in the
> world, in terms of executions per head of population.
> <snip>
> Is it because no Republican can every do anything progressive?
> Certainly in
> Ryan's dramatic speech, some of which I saw live on CNN, he was making
> his contribution to history. But it is a compelling as well as a
> reasoned speech, and the video needs to be used across the country.
> While I am critical of leftists who refuse as a matter of principle to
> see that the Democrats may at times be more progressive than the
> Republicans, in order to break out of tailing behind one party, it is
> necessary to be alert to wider trends that cut across parties, where
> there is an opening for progressive advance. That means that it is
> important to look for progessive Republicans if you are to avoid
> tailing behind Democrats.
<snip>
there was some mention a while back on this list of how clearly to the left of his defeated democratic opponent ryan was.
listening to the radio, this morning, a poll in illinois from last week (if i heard correctly) showed that something like 3/4 of illinois residents opposed a blanket commutation, as opposed to 17% in favor. 55%, iirc, favored the current moratorium on executions.
this was george ryan, republican being aggressively progressive in the face of a mostly hostile state population (of both parties, afaict). i only saw some ten minutes of his speech. did he make a class-based argument, among his arguments?
incidentally, i don't think most people favor the death penalty because it's deterrent (it's not), although they will sometimes use that argument out of embarrassment or as a smoke screen. i think most people who favor the death penalty favor it because they think some people just plain deserve it.
j