Judge political parties by their platforms

Many Democrats want to abolish the death penalty. The 2016 Democratic party platform seeks to abolish the death penalty “which has proven to be cruel and unusual form of punishment. It has no place in the United States of America.”

The Democratic Party platform would reform mandatory minimum sentences, close private prisons, end racial profiling and train officers in de-escalation. But the Democratic platform would keep the death penalty for unwanted unborn babies. The Democratic platform says: “We will appoint judges who defend the constitutional principles of liberty and equality for all and will protect a woman's right to safe and legal abortion.”

The Republicans are tougher on crime and support the death penalty. The 2016 Republican Party platform notes that the death penalty is firmly settled by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and opposes efforts to erode this right. The GOP asserts the sanctity of human life and affirms, “The unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

The party supports a Human Life Amendment making clear that the 14th Amendment's protections apply to children before birth, and it salutes states that require informed consent, parental consent, waiting periods and clinic regulation.

Capital punishment is unfortunately a necessary and beneficial corrective to the crime of murder. Capital punishment, if administered surely and swiftly, is a deterrent to crime. Those murderers given the death penalty can't later escape or be freed by a pardon by the governor or president. Without the death penalty, society must pay for the anguish suffered by the victims and their family and friends of crime, then pay again each year to hold the criminal in prison.

Without the death penalty, society is doubly victimized.

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Judge political parties by their platforms."