Applauding executions...a dark and scary moment in US history

[judy]

I am still trying to recover from the moment in the Republican Debate, when Brian Williams asked Rick Perry about the 234 executions in Texas under his tenure as Governor, and the audience cheered and applauded.
Can anyone explain to me what is worth cheering about here?
I happen to be 100% against the death penalty.
But even if I wasn't...what can be seen as a positive in something like this?
This is incredibly reminiscent of Europe during the rise of fascism.
I never ever thought I would see something like this in my lifetime :(

[white_wolf]

1. Even Brian Williams was shocked.

[markpkessinger]

26. Yes he was. But he should have pressed Perry further...

...I mean, the question was obviously a pointed reference to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Williams just let that slide on by.

[indepat]

32. Brian's right-wingedness will always show imo if given sufficient

time. :patriot:

[Safetykitten]

29. "I am shocked" sez Brian Williams the genial talking head of opportunity and blandness, the standard

of crap news and shit reporting.

Oh my! He's shocked!

[Fumesucker]

2. Republican primary voters love them some state killing..

They'd applaud the death penalty for breathing while poor.

[nosmokes]

7. even (or maybe especially) when the executed is innocent. n/t

[Iggo]

22. Because, to them, killing is more important than justice. (n/t)

[hlthe2b]

3. Their ancestors traveled far & wide to picnic at lynchings....

The "apple doesn't fall far from the tree".... :mad:

[tblue37]

4. And sent souvenir postcards to those who were unable tomake the show. nt

[FourScore]

21. I bet most of those who clapped call themselves Christians too. But do they really believe

that Christ would have clapped?

[Iggo]

23. They think christ was a pussy...

...but they can't admit it, or the house of cards tumbles.

[The Second Stone]

5. It's fascism pure and simple

These people are monsters.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. I can't remember a time in recent memory where I have been more stunned

I thought I was missing something (like someone held up a sign off camera or something).

I am still not getting it. They applauded, nay CHEERED the *TOPIC*. Not the answer to a question, but the TOPIC.

Still stunned.

[sasha031]

8. of all the insanity of the debate, that has haunted me the most

the thought of sharing a country with people like this is sickening, never mind a planet.

[hobbit709]

9. nothing new there.

Long history in this country and many others.
Look up France during the Reign of Terror.

[judy]

19. Yes, you are right...

Starting with the massacre of native populations, which the French did as well and with pleasure when they colonized Canada.
Maybe this kind of blood thirst comes and goes in cycles. We might be in for a rough time in the coming years. Especially if Perry becomes president, which seems likely in this climate.

[lunatica]

10. Watching others die has been a human pastime for all our history

The gladiator games and the public spectacle of killing the Christians in the Coliseum were immensely popular. In the wild West people attended hangings all the time. The lynching of Blacks was treated like some party.

It's a form of entertainment for some people. If they allowed our death penalty executions to be televised they would be more popular than Dancing with the Stars.

I'm also 100% against the death penalty.

[sabrina 1]

13. Yes, but in those countries the death penalty is now illegal.

Seems like they have learned. I also wonder how many people in any of those societies actually supported those policies. I think that what happened was the most disturbed, brutal members of society took over but that doesn't mean a majority supported them, they had little choice much of the time.

And the same thing could happen again. As it seems to be happening here. The very fact that any of these people. Bush, Perry eg, could get this close to power here, shows how quickly we could return to the days when people went to public executions for entertainment purposes.

However, statistics are showing that fewer people now support the DP than they did ten or twenty years ago. So there is some hope.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Actually the reason why they went behind walls was...

It was turning people against it. I say televised them. A few botched ones will do more to turn people into anti death advocates than words ever will. And this is why they won't go public...even with our fairly sterile medically based system.

This is a historic fact by the way.

[sabrina 1]

11. It is very dark and truly scary. I agree!

What is interesting is that the same people who cheered those executions will tell you the reason we have to kill 'ragheads' is because they are so primitive they 'execute people in football stadiums' (I know, they've told me this). They simply can't see the similarity, (at first I thought they were offended by the venue, but when asked they have assured me 'no, it's the barbarism of it all') between them and those they condemn. So to use their logic 'ragheads are barbaric because their governments kill people in football stadiums, but we in the US are not when we do the same thing, except for the venue'.

I consider the death penalty to be Barbaric, and the reaction of those people proves it. They are so accustomed to state violence they are not only not shocked by it, they applaud it. By contrast, people who grow up in societies where the DP is illegal, even those on the 'right', are often shocked when they come to the US and realize that the state is actually going to kill someone.

We are a primitive people basically. The lack of outrage over torture and illegal war and the DP is a sign of how unevolved we are as a species, yet we want the world to view as an example of all that is good.

[Tom Ripley]

12. Even when I supported the death penalty, I was always appalled by

those supporters who showed up with their signs and cheers as if it were a sporting event.

I no longer support the DP.

[asjr]

14. After all the years (sometimes it

seems like centuries) I have been following politics this was the one moment I had chills go through me. I have had hope that things would get better until that happened.

[Solly Mack]

15. The US government tortured people & got away with it. Even pretends it didn't happen

by calling it anything but torture, a well as the lack of prosecutions. Many, many (many) Americans are AOK with this...and people applauding execution is something people never thought they would see in their lifetime? It's not surprising or stunning - or even unexpected - considering the last decade. (or even considering the whole of America's history) Applauding executions seems all too American in an America that would torture people and not prosecute the war criminals.

[The Doctor.]

16. I wonder if a single one of them

would hesitate for even a moment to identify themselves as 'Christian'?

[Hawkowl]

17. Humans are violent, like chimps

Most of are mean, violent and cruel with just a thin veneer of civility preventing all out warfare. Not saying you are, just that the majority, or at least the majority of those in charge, are this way.

We must call this behavior out as unacceptable.

[gordianot]

18. If a Governor has the power to commute a death sentence why not mandate they watch the execution?

This could be done by closed circut video.

[young_at_heart]

20. Their applause was a window into their 'beliefs'

A normal person would be horrified at such a response, so these people are definitely not normal!

[BOG PERSON]

24. pictured: people celebrating osama bin laden's execution outside white house

[kelly1mm]

25. While more Democrats favor the death penalty than oppose it, I doubt you

would see/hear applause at the number of executions at a Democratic debate.

[mnhtnbb]

27. Put a little mustache on Perry and he's Hitler incarnate.

I fear for women, gays, and anyone not Christian if that
guy manages to occupy the Oval Office.

[markpkessinger]

28. I was equally stunned by Perry's comment, that he hasn't "struggled at all" ...

... with the question of the possible innocence of any of the people executed on his watch (particularly in a state like Texas, which has had more post-conviction DNA exonerations than any other state in the Union). Even though I am and always have been 100% opposed to capital punishment, though, there is a response a strong capital punishment advocate like Perry could have made in response to that question that at least would have been somewhat morally defensible. It would go something like this:

The people of Texas, in their wisdom and discretion­, have determined that the death penalty is the appropriat­e sentence for those who have committed certain types of crimes, and as their governor, I respect their decision. That said, do I struggle with the possibilit­y that some who may have been convicted of such crimes are actually innocent? The answer is 'yes' -- I struggle with it mightily each and every time the question comes before me.

But to say he hasn't "struggled with that at all" is just ... I'm sorry, there's no other word for it ... SOCIOPATHIC!

[Divine Discontent]

30. that element of GOPer is very vengeful...

I know people who have turned from the GOP but still back the death penalty loudly in my presence, and then there was a person I knew out west who said that B*sh should've used a nuke on the Muslim led countries...


http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128002960205017719