You know how Pelosi and Reid seem to fall over themselves in piss-their-pants terror at the thought of being called weak on national security? The way they cave at the mere whiff of a Republican Senate filibuster? The fact that it's taken endless prodding from the Netroots to get them to even appear to have a spine of their own? Well, it's probably because they've had lots of practice.
Back in the good old days, before Al-Qaeda became a household name, there was still fear.
Before Democrats were soft on terrorists or weak on national security we were soft on crime.
Presenting: Scare Tactics 101, or: Fear Mongering Before 9-11.
More below the fold...
On my previous diary, there were comments that raised that terrifying pre-cursor of terrorists: child molesters and rapists.
I assure you, I am not making light of rape or molestation, whatever the victim's age. I am however, taking serious shots at rapists, molesters and other criminals as the bogeymen of the 20th century.
In my previous diary, I floated the idea that all felons get their right to vote back, preferably immediately after release (I'm saving the fight for the inmate vote for later), and that employers be barred from looking back further than three years on someone's criminal record. If you missed that post and would like to get the appropriate background, go here.
Most sexual assault crimes are heinous; they are, in my mind, on list of the worst things that one individual can do to another. Those who commit these crimes should suffer the long sentences, and undergo the most extreme rehabilitation efforts. If they cannot be rehabilitated, then they should not be released. I have no problem with life without parole for violent rapists.
However not all offenders are sex offenders, and most sex-offenders aren't child rapists. The suggestion's been made that post-parole treatment of ex-cons depend on the crime committed and that's an issue that's worth discussing, but to permanently relegate all ex-cons, even first-time or one-time offenders to second-class-citizen status is unacceptable.
Facts: According to the US Department of Justice statistics on convictions only 3% of convictions in 2004 were for sexual assault of any kind.
Just like terrorism, crime is a real problem but when politicians (particularly the Right) use threats about crime (whilst constantly trying to undermine gun control no less) to strike fear into the voting public so that they will vote for or against a particular individual or party, it's good ol' fashioned fear mongering. Just like Mom used to make.
Fear mongering is the way that despots and tyrants sway public opinion. It's also a brilliant way to avoid ever having any substantive discussion about the issue. At the best it's lazy policy leadership, at worst, it's a systematic poisoning of the democratic process.
Just like fear mongering over terrorism, fear mongering over crime isn't just misleading, it's dangerous and it prevents us from honestly and effectively addressing the real issues. Gangs, rapists, kidnappers, "stranger danger," drugs (yes, at some point we'll do a good long exploration of the war on drugs), muggers, murderers, etc... the only time they're brought up in political discourse they are phantom menaces meant to scare you into voting one way or another. Rarely or never is it meant to be a serious, rational discussion of a problem, its roots and its solutions.
As before, I'm most interested in discussion (that'd be the real, substantive kind) so I'll end with some questions this time: do we really care about rehabilitation? Does anyone still believe that rehabilitation is truly possible? And if our goal is rehabilitation, how is that goal accomplished or aided by continuing to treat ex-cons as criminals, continuing to marginalize them and generally discouraging their integration into law-abiding society?
What I find most disturbing is the proclivity, across party, gender, and socio-economic lines, to think and react to ex-cons as a faceless mass, allowing generalization and, yes, bigotry to inform our thoughts. These cases are prosecuted on an individual basis (or should be), parole is administered on an individual basis, but the way communities react to an ex-con in their midst rarely has anything at all to do with the individual in question.