My thoughts on capital punishment

I recently received a message from someone asking me about my views on capital punishment. My reply to that person is posted below. I think I lost that person's support with my reply, but that is okay. I do think it is fair for voters to know my thoughts on the matter so that they may decide for themselves whether or not I would be the right candidate to represent them.

I will be honest with you—I do not have faith that we can rely upon our justice system to be faithful and consistent in administering justice. I am even skeptical now of the judgements of the U.S. Supreme Court, and certainly the lower courts are corrupted and often get it wrong. (At least, that is my view.)  

We live in a world now that has had our culture and our moral values corrupted through years of indoctrination, and I think that has to be considered when we place the fate of a person's life in the hands of a judge or a jury of his or her peers. We also have had our news sources replaced by nothing but propaganda and deliberately false narratives. Claims that Trump had committed treason permeated our news cycle on an almost daily basis throughout the “reporting” on “Russian collusion.” The claims that Trump was guilty of treason continued following the events at our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021.  

Treason is a crime punishable by death, and I think that when propaganda and false narratives are permitted to dominate through the corrupt mainstream media, the magnitude and reach of the message dilutes the gravity that such an allegation (one punishable by death) should bring with it. I think such narratives diminish the value of human life and are extremely dangerous to the pursuit of justice.   

This extends far beyond epithetical accusations of treason that might be made by an individual. When our media and our government hold such power to essentially create a mob mentality, with messaging that is echoed even by those in our U.S. Supreme Court (thinking in terms of how the courts have adopted groupthink when it comes to COVID-19 issues), then I think we need to be cautious about what we consider the proper administration of justice to be, if the determination to be made is whether or not to take a life.

During the time I have spent in the political sphere as someone who has given up my anonymity and has sometimes become the subject of public discussions, I have witnessed firsthand how the truth often does not matter when it comes to the judgement of a person. I have witnessed firsthand just how easily people can be persuaded (through media and through those who are in government or who hold influence in the political sphere) into adopting a groupthink mentality when it comes to judging a person, absent any consideration of the facts which are right before their very eyes. Granted, my experience of that is on a small scale, but I believe that many people would agree that the mainstream media and our government do hold the power to distribute propaganda and false narratives which often are meant to deliberately distort the truth. I think all one has to do is to look to COVID-19 propaganda for evidence of that. I believe that false narratives are so prevalent now that many have become numb to the consequences of it and perhaps fail to see the great harm and injustice that is being caused by it. 

So when discussing capital punishment, I cannot view that subject in isolation. I believe that when the matter is one of determining whether or not to take a human life, my perspective on the matter cannot be whether or not I personally believe that an individual deserves to be put to death or not, but I think that (as someone who is asking to serve in government) my view must be informed by whether or not I trust that a judge or jury of peers are going to get it right. I cannot say with certainty right now that I do believe that would be the case.

 If you believe, as I do, that our government has been usurped through manipulations of our elections, then you should be cautious to give those same people the power to decide whether or not your assertions about their actions may be deemed treasonous or not. Do not forget that it was our corrupt justice system who failed to acknowledge that voters had standing to object to the usurpation of our country. 

You will often hear me repeat the phrase that we must CLAIM, USE, and DEFEND our rights. I think it is vital to the preservation of our freedom that we do so. I do believe that life sometimes must be taken to defend one's rights, and I believe wholeheartedly that we hold the inalienable right to self-defense of our life, liberty, and property. It is also in the protection and defense of our freedom that we send our young men and women off to fight wars. But the inalienable right to self-defense through any means necessary is not the same thing as the administering of capital punishment. 

Granted, not having been touched by the experience of violent crime, my views are only informed by hypotheticals. I cannot say with any certainty that if my child or a loved one of mine was the victim of a violent crime that I would not have thoughts of taking justice into my own hands. That is perhaps not the "right" thing for me to say, but it is the truth. And I believe that if I ever were to act in such a way as to take a life under those circumstances, I would do so knowing that the ultimate judge of my actions would be that of God. I would not do anything that I would not be willing to stand before God and answer for. Which is why I think that when it comes to such a decision being made collectively and not by an individual, I am more reluctant to take part. 

What I mean to say is that I do understand why a person would want to take the life of someone who had done them or their loved ones great harm. But I think that how I feel about that personally and on a case by case basis is different than how I feel about the taking of a life being determined by a divided society that I believe is no longer unified by a sense of shared moral values. It is because I do place such value on human life that I believe we cannot afford to get it wrong. 

I know that my views on this might not be the "right" ones for a Republican candidate for office to hold. But it would be dishonest of me to express to you that I hold any views other than the ones that I've just shared. I don't claim to have all the answers, though. I assume that every person I meet has something that they can teach me, and so I am always willing to listen to the views of others on this matter and any other. A good argument could change my mind, but all of the information which I have had available to me up to this point has led me to arrive at the position I have expressed here. 

I am a candidate for office, but what I am trying to "win" is something so much greater than an elected position. I will not cater my message to what it is that I think (or that I am told) people want to hear. We may share differing views, but to those who believe that capital punishment should be part of our justice system, I can commit to doing all that I can to restore the shared sense of moral values that is the foundational component upon which our country was built. Without an agreed upon set of shared moral values, we can not have law and order. God has been removed from our government, and I believe that has put justice at risk. The motto of our nation is "In God We Trust." I believe that our government has gotten away from that, and without that, I am skeptical that justice can be properly administered.