How can today's Republicans be both anti-government and pro-death penalty?

a reply to: FlyersFan


Brilliant . . . worth more than the one star I can give.

It will be a glorious day when the blind followers of both sides wake up and realize they are being bamboozled by the two party system.

Such a dream . . .

a reply to: Indigo5

I merely addressed a point..... you can chose to ignore. Personally, I find it odd that one person might have moral outrage about executing a convicted criminal but have no qualms about blendering a human that did nothing to deserve that fate. You however are entitled to your opinion, as am I.

Just for you, Republicans are not anti-government, they are anti BIG overreaching Government.
The Death penalty is not related to that stand.

It's a secondary issue, one that I might add, has supporters and detractors from BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES. It's not a cut and dry Republican vs Democrat thing.

originally posted by: PsychoEmperor
It makes perfect sense if you get out of your talking point that republicans are really "Anti-Government" They are "Anti- BIG Government." Republicans Understand we need a Government, in fact you'll find a lot of them say they want a strong Military, That's Government. They'll also state they want a strong Police Force and Fire Department, that's Government. They'll say they want Three Separate functioning branches, the Judiciary, executive and Legislative, that's all government.

So yes a majority of Republicans are anti BIG government, and a majority will probably support the death penalty as that goes in line with their sense of a strong police force and strong law enforcement.

It makes perfect sense.

Just getting back to this... The title may be skewed a bit. The source poll showed that only 10% of Republicans trust the government. Ergo 90% have a negative view. Essentially, anti-government. I've encountered many Republicans and others that advocate a reduced government footprint. Not a single individual has articulated exactly where that line should be drawn. It's because of that lack of underlying core value criteria, that I believe the advocacy is disingenuous. As someone else stated, the two sides just want a government tailored to their ideology rather than a scaled down USG. I've never heard anyone (except myself) that has advocated an across the board budget cut. IMO that's the fraudulent two party system exerting control over the narrative.

originally posted by: FlyersFan
The left claims to care about children but then doesn't mind that black children are mass slaughtered in abortion to the point that many black leaders in this country call it black genocide.

I'm not against the rest of your post but I just wanted to point out that...

It's easy to not mind abortion if you don't believe the fetus is alive.
Don't need to feel remorse if that's what people believe in.

It's like you said, most of the right don't care if children aren't really fed, I mean that's the parents responsibilities right?
I don't feel remorse because I wouldn't do that to my own child.

Pretty much everyone can claim the "other side" is careless when it all depends on values.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
Mods, move this if it's in the wrong place please.

One of the logical tests of a model is self-coherence. If a model has inner conflict or self conflict it can be described as incoherent. Incoherent means something is missing, extraneous or broken in the model.

Statistics on the application of the death penalty in the US are fascinating. What does it all mean?

80% of self identified Republicans are pro death penalty. source
Oddly, only 10% of self identified Republicans don't trust the government in charge of the application of the death penalty. source

This is ironic isn't it. Did you know that 60%+ "whites" believe the death penalty is fairly applied by the US justice system while only 35% of "blacks" believe it's applied fairly? 45% of Hispanics believe it's fair. source

It is fact that despite composing roughly 15% of the US population, 35% of all people executed are black. Hmmm. Did you know that 77% of all executions are for murdering a white? Did you know that black people executed for killing a white out number white killing blacks 13:1? sources

The question at hand is; are White people predominantly in support of the death penalty because they know it favors them? In other words, white privileged or white authoritarianism? They don't trust the government, but they trust the unwritten "system"?

Any insight to offer ATS?

You present a false dichotomy. Conservatives are not "anti-government," they are for limited government that sticks to Constitutionally limited duties responsibilities. Punishing a violent criminal would be one of those duties.

a reply to: teamcommander

The same way they can be pro-life and pro-war.

Oh yes, the same way Democrat FDR could be pro-war, the same way anti War Obama went into Libya without Congress, the same way Lyndon Johnson got us into the Viet Nam war, the same way that Truman sent US troops to Korea, the same way Woodrow Wilson got us into WWI........

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

Many republicans do not trust what the government has begun, but ya know we have some Founding Fathers to thank for our essential distrust...

Not all republicans r conservative a lot of the moderates r progressives very much like democrats. We all know how democrat like big government moderates over small government hard right. Plus, the hard right really don't hold any powers so they don't make the majority of the laws. Most politicians r moderates or leftist. They control the government.

originally posted by: damwel
That's an easy one. They are a bunch of hypocrites. The same as they are for the working man but against minimum wage increases.

I would like for someone to explain to me what the minimum wage is going to do for the working man if you can't live on minimum wage? The minimum wage has never been anything but a bone the left throws to it's most dominant constituency (the poor and uneducated). It has never improved their quality of life and it never will. You will never see a burger flipper making the same wage as a nurse.

First of all, the left would never support raising the min wage high enough to actually live on. Why? Because they'd lose one of their most valuable tools for political manipulation. This issue will never be anything more than an empty promise to help poor people.

Intelligent people know that if the minimum wage goes up by three dollars, it's a matter of time before prices go up.

If the Dems want to prove they're serious about this, they should try to pass a law that forbids raising prices. It's the same principle. If you can order a business to pay a minimum wage, you should be able to tell them they can't charge more for their products and services.

So did we kill the thread? The answer .. typical hypocrisy that both the left and the right carry equally.