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| Is Gov. Bruce Rauner really trying to undo ... |
But
I also realize there are some people living in this state who have ideological
hang-ups that cause them to despise the notion that we in Illinois no longer puts
people to death as a form of criminal punishment. Which is what I suspect is Gov.
Bruce Rauner’s motivation for actions Monday meant to try to bring back capital
punishment.
RAUNER
WANTS THE people who ridiculously think he’s some form of social liberal to actually
be inclined to vote for him come Nov. 6 – instead of desperately searching for
a third-party gubernatorial candidate.
Because
the way things are shaping up, the number of people who’d be willing to vote
for Bruce will wind up being smaller than the Democrats who will eagerly vote
for J.B. Pritzker for governor out of the idea of snatching back the post from
the GOP.
Rauner
stirred up the death penalty pot on Monday when he used his amendatory veto
powers to alter a bill that was intended to impose various restrictions on
firearms ownership.
That
measure included an extension of a three-day waiting period for someone to actually
obtain the firearm they want to buy, a ban on bump stocks and trigger cranks
that turn regular firearms into higher-powered weapons of destruction and
allowing judges to issue restraining orders to disarm people considered
dangerous.
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| ... the actions of Pat Quinn ... |
ALL
ARE IDEAS the conservative ideologues hate because they see them as
restrictions on what they want to believe is a Constitutionally-issued right of
all people to own firearms.
So
Rauner will score bonus points with the ideologues if his politicking manages
to make a mess of this proposal that was approved this spring by the General
Assembly.
And
if, by chance, Rauner were to actually get the state Legislature to accept his
addition of a capital crimes statute for people convicted of murder against
multiple people and against police officers, he’d be giving the ideologues
something they fantasize about.
Which
is why we’re now going to go through a partisan political mess in the near future
over what will become of this measure that was one of several the
Democratic-run Legislature approved as a reaction to incidents of mass violence
occurring across the nation.
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| ... and George Ryan, or just trying ... |
IT
MAY BE the big ideological difference between the political partisans – the more
liberal-minded want measures they think will reduce the violence, while the
conservative-leaning amongst us want to have tougher penalties for those who
commit such acts.
Like
I already wrote, I supported the past measures that eliminated capital punishment
in Illinois. Largely because it became blatantly obvious that our system was
more than capable of issuing ultimate (and irrevocable) penalty to people who
didn’t commit the crime.
Rauner
claims he’s going to get around this by requiring cases where the death penalty
is sought to be held to the standard of “guilty beyond all doubt,” rather than
the “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” legal standard that is required for a
criminal conviction for any other offense.
Which
sounds cute. It sounds nice. But it is a ridiculous notion to think we can
achieve. For as long as we have human involvement in the criminal justice
system, there are going to be screw-ups.
THERE’S
JUST NO way we can ever have an absolute truth within our system. Anybody who says
we can is either lying to us or is seriously delusional. Neither of which ought
to be trusted.
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| ... to Dump Madigan! come November? |
So
if I view this effort as a political maneuver by Rauner, it makes sense.
He’s
tossing out some rhetoric meant to appease the ideologues inclined to think he’s
wrong on abortion, immigration and equality for gay people, hoping that it
might get them to vote for him.
And
if in the process, he manages to derail a firearms-related bill that they
despise they’ll love him – even if, in the end, they wind up sitting on their
hands and doing nothing come Election Day.
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