I’ve been doing my best to avoid wasting your time with the current off season election. While politics really isn’t my thing these days I do feel the need to chime in from time to time. This post is dedicated to Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for the Minnesota governor’s race. As this is a gun blog I will point out that Johnson has been enjoying decent support for local gun owners because he pays lip service to the Second Amendment and he’s not Mark Dayton (probably more the latter than the former).
Here’s the problem with Jeff Johnson, he’s a dick. As evidence to support my accusation I present the following:
Johnson, who first proposed reinstating capital punishment for some violent crimes during his unsuccessful bid for attorney general in 2006, said he still supports it.
Admittedly I don’t have much support to give but the second a politician says he supports having the overt power of life and death over his subjects he loses all of my support. Consider the position Johnson is running for. A governor traditionally has the power to exempt people from the death penalty after being sentenced to it. Additionally the death penalty gives the courts an option to outright execute people. This is a major problem when you consider the number of death row inmates who were later acquitted or had the charges otherwise dismissed.
While locking people in a cage is pretty nasty, death is final. Improvement in forensic technology is responsible for many acquittals. As the technology continues to improve it’s likely more people will be found wrongfully convicted. If those people are in a cage they can at least be let out and allowed to live some kind of life. On the other hand if those people are executed there’s not a damn thing that can be done if they’re later found innocent.
Guilty verdicts don’t necessarily mean the convicted is guilty. Knowing this the fact that Johnson supports reinstating the death penalty in Minnesota makes him wholly unworthy of being in a position where he can potentially make it happen. It’s none of my business what master you pick but I discourage you from picking one that wants the organization he is trying to lead, the State of Minnesota, to have the power to overtly murder its subjects.