Friday, March 15, 2019
By Gary Bauer
California is certainly one of the nation's most pro-abortion states, right up there with New York. Ironically, Governor Gavin Newsom announced earlier this week that he will no longer enforce the Golden State's death penalty law because in his view the death penalty is immoral.
Here's some of what Newsom has said in various written statements and public remarks in recent days:
"The intentional killing of another person is wrong. And as Governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual."
"This is about who I am as a human being. . . To me this is the right thing to do."
"I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people. In short, the death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian."
Clearly, the governor has no clue about what it means to be a Californian, and he doesn't care.
Californians have voted twice in the past seven years to uphold the death penalty. And in 2016, as Hillary Clinton was carrying the state in a landslide, Californians approved a ballot measure to speed up the appeals process for death sentences.
Newsom's arrogance shouldn't surprise anyone. As you may recall, it was then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who decided to unilaterally ignore the state's marriage laws in 2004.
Today he won't agree to capital punishment for convicted murderers. Yet he has no qualms about the "premeditated and discriminatory execution" of thousands of completely innocent unborn children every year. The hypocrisy is breathtaking!
Newsom's order spares people like Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped, raped and brutally murdered 12 year-old Polly Klass. The governor thinks Davis deserves compassion but little babies who have never harmed anyone can be torn apart? Or dissolved by salt?
Needless to say, many Californians, such as Tami and Kermit Alexander, are outraged by Newsom's callousness. The Alexanders have been leading advocates for victims' rights in California. Gang members murdered four members of Kermit's family in 1984. He sued the state in 2015 to force the execution of the thug who executed his mother, sister and two nephews.
"California just became a dictatorship today," Tami lamented.
Whether it is the meaning of marriage, the sanctity of life, securing the border or seeing to it that justice is served, it shouldn't be so hard to find politicians who are true public servants and who respect the will of the people.
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