On Monday, the Democrats approved their 2024 platform, which includes no mention of the death penalty. This year’s platform marks the first time since 2004 the platform has not mentioned the death penalty (the 2008 and 2012 platforms called for making the punishment less arbitrary).
Public support for the death penalty has been gradually declining. A Gallup poll last year found that 65% of Democrats oppose the punishment.
The Democratic National Committee did not respond to an email asking if the party still supports abolishing the death penalty.
It’s not huge on my priority list, but why? It’s just…bad. Maybe it’s popular with too many people in the center.
ETA: How can you have the Central Park 5 represent at the DNC and then do this??
Honestly, there’s bigger fish to fry (pun only moderately intended).
If we didn’t have war in Ukraine, and war AND genocide in Gaza and two African countries at the moment, and then whatever the hell is happening in Venezuela and ascertaining its ramifications, along with stupid inflation on just what we need to live, and multiple generations locked out of homeownership or possibly even retirement due to a corporate greed-created housing crisis and predatory student loans, and a SCOTUS that is bent on removing the rights of just about anyone who isn’t a straight, white “Christian” man…then yeah, death penalty talk should have been on the table.
But, Harris is a politician, and all politicians have to focus on whichever sound bites can bring over those who are - astonishingly - undecided at this point. It’s naive to think that any candidate who has it “all” will get the nomination. That’s how Hilary got the nomination over Bernie, and it’s how we got Biden as well.
It blows my mind that anyone could be undecided now, but clearly there are folks out there who simply do not in any way follow the news or put any effort into understanding the candidates or issues until the very last minute.
It’s a mindset I simply don’t get.
It’s insane. You think those people just wouldn’t vote if they’re that uninformed, but nope, there must really be people out there who will vote based on the vibes they’re feeling that week or something.
The only way I could see it is if you’re a Republican voter who’s getting worried about Trump’s increasingly unhinged tweeting and speeches. But even then, considering what he’s done before, it’s hard to believe someone hitting that point now, so late.
There are plenty of people out there who live by the “Never Vote Democrat” rule, regardless of not realizing that Democrat policies would probably help them, and Republican actions are why they are bad off now. Party line, do or die. How can you change that?
At least then you’re a dedicated Republican cult member by this point. But being an undecided voter, now? That’s hard for me to wrap my mind around lol.
I can’t say I understand it either. All I can do is try to suggest to them maybe there’s a reason to vote left, even on just a single issue, and perhaps break through the wall of sports politics and apathy. I don’t see that as taking a high road, but just trying to win the little battles where it’s feasible. Some people are lost, and you find that out really quickly if you can’t even have a discussion with them without it getting ugly.
The President can blanket commute federal death penalty sentences. It’s been done in specific cases before:
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/president-obama-commutes-two-death-sentences
Would just need the some White House lawyers to draw up the paperwork, and it’s done for at least one administration. Literally the minimum that could be done.
Most death penalty cases are at the state level, of course. Even if they have Democrats in the governor’s office, this power will depend on the individual state constitution.
The democratic party has been adopting a lot of conservatives left behind by Trump’s republican party. I think this is resulting in a pretty strong divide between the younger leftists and the older bidenites. You can see this by the infighting over domestic policy like immigration, oil permits, economic policy, transportation, and this death penalty policy.
I think Kamala is basically straddling that line to keep the party together, adopting a bit from the left while avoiding any pain points for the right. She’s definitely more left than Biden, but I think it’s possible that the party could break apart into something like a new Socialist Party and a America Party, if Trump leaves politics and the republican party shrivels up.
I have a feeling that, in the very near future, the Republican party is going to fall apart, the Democratic party will shift to the right, and a new leftist party will emerge and draw off the Dems’ left wing.
Assuming the Republicans’ fascist takeover doesn’t succeed, of course.
This is pretty much the last shred of hope I have of fixing our future.
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Wikipedia about this sourceAdopting a platform with as agreeable as possible to beat an extremist. As long as they don’t start endorsing the death penalty, I understand this strategy.
Adopting a platform with as agreeable as possible to beat an extremist.
They’re adopting an extremist position to beat an extremist.
You can label it whatever you want, when one party abandons good faith, we all lose, even if that party does not win. Democracy is a free market of ideas, which is only as strong as the average of ALL of its participants.
We’ll get to it after we eat the rich
The lefty side of me thinks: “We’re nominating a former prosecutor…what did we expect?”
The practical side of me thinks: “This is like Palestine/Israel. Sure, Harris could be better on this issue…but Trump is still a hundred times worse.”
The far right movement isn’t an excuse for everyone else to shift right.
“They’re trying to make the world infinitely worse! We must oppose them by making the world a finite amount worse!”
She hasn’t. She’s been consistently to the left of Biden on Gaza.
How so? She did the “both sides” thing during her speech, and did nothing to actually condemn Israel’s actions. She called out Hamas for the October 7 attack. It’s as if Democrats think that Palestinians are just genociding themselves. Her position on Israel-Palestine seems to be to condemn Hamas and create the most lethal military of all time.
The “both sides” thing, as you put it, is acknowledging that Hamas started this current round of violence with its horrifying actions on October 7th, which is the truth. But she also specifically called for Palestinians to have the right to self-determination and autonomy, which is further than Biden was willing to go.
Israel is currently being run by a corrupt madman. Sadly, so are its neighbors, particularly Iran. That puts the United States in the unenviable position of trying to prevent Israel’s destruction (which would be a once-in-a-century horror) while trying to pressure the corrupt madman in charge of it to end his own genocidal assault on Gaza.
Now imagine Trump in charge. Trump would be actively working to make things much, much worse.
Oh, I agree completely. I think it’s disgusting how the right has succeeded in shifting the Overton window a ridiculous amount over the past decade or so.
Good.
