Perry's Death Penalty Bona Fides

Today's Wall Street Journal editorial page opens with a critique of the "liberal elite." Big surprise.

In "Why they cheered" James Taranto explains that the those who were put off by the cheerful response during the Republican debate to Rick Perry's death penalty stat - that he has overseen more executions than any other governor - fail to understand the fact that an argument in favor of capitol punishment should give us a "tinge of patriotic pride." The logic, according to Taranto, is that since Europeans and Americans both favor executions, the United States government shows its respect for democracy by keeping capitol punishment legal. European governments, on the other hand, which are dominated by elites, autocratically impose soft justice onto their people. Taranto describes the left's reaction to the the applause as harsh, self-righteous, and simple minded, as if those so brazen enough to raucously cheer in favor of the death penalty possessed no such qualities.

I have always taken exception to the "how can the same people who are against abortions be in favor of the death penalty?" argument. The holes in that logic are so gaping they do not deserve the time to address them, and Taranto is right to assert that there is no comparison. But there is a parallel to draw between the two deeply moral issues.

Two nights ago, we saw a Governor boast, and the crowd cheer, about having the highest number of executions on record. Would we have ever seen anything like that on the other end of the political spectrum? Even those on the left who are most fervently pro-choice do not rejoice when abortion statistics spike. No one would celebrate the fact that more abortion procedures have been done in his or her state than in any other. Such a statistic would be a sign of a wider societal problem, rooted in poverty, lack of education, and a myriad of other factors. The same can be said about a high rate of executions. In fact, Texas ranks in the bottom half of the country in high school graduation rate and has wages below the national average in all but 18 of its 254 counties. And that is nothing to cheer about.