The Pendulum Swings - With California's adoption of Prop. 36, will capital punishment now be en vouge?

The public's attitude swings like a pendulum. This year's elections prove that.

After electing Donald Trump in 2016 and removing him in 2020, Americans put him back in the Whitehouse this year.

This swinging pendulum was not just American voters either. The pendulum swung for Californians, as evidenced by the overwhelming approval of Proposition 36.  

Approved by about 70 percent of voters, the proposition, among other things, rolls back criminal justice reforms voters approved with Proposition 47 in 2014. Proposition 47 was adopted in part as a reaction to California's decades-long get-tough-on-criminals approach to crime, which decimated certain communities with long-term negative consequences and did little more than breed more criminals in California's expanded and costly penal system. 

Arguments can be made that voters in both cases were influenced by the mainstream media's sanewashing of Trump's behavior for American voters or high-profile smash-and-grab robberies highlighted for Californians, much less other social influencers. We'll leave those discussions for another time.

Both events - Trump's reelection and the crackdown on criminals - are the direct voice of the people. As it relates to crime and punishment in California, we cannot help but wonder what other consequences this swing in attitude could produce in years to come, especially capital punishment. 

Even though California is a death penalty state, the last execution was in 2006 under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. More recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on capital punishment upon entering office in 2019. 

Nonetheless, capital punishment laws are still on the books. Furthermore, 2016's Proposition 62, which would have outlawed state executions, was rejected by 53 to 47 percent, showing most voters support capital punishment.

Given how Californians' appetite has been whetted for getting tough on criminals, you can't help but wonder if some crafty politician will push for more executions over the next few years. As we have seen leading up to the approval of Proposition 36, it just takes some favorable media coverage, a few big-money supporters, and hard pushes from law enforcement groups like the California District Attorneys Association.  

Among the sponsors and supporters of Proposition 36 were San Jose Mayor Scott Mahan, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, and Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen. While all claim affiliation with the Democratic Party, one suspects that if Democratic officials did not dominate California, they are only be in the party because it would be difficult to get elected in Sacramento and Santa Clara counties as a Republican.

We know that Singh-Allen was a Republican before she switched allegiance for political expediency. If you were outside California and listened to all three without knowledge of their claimed political affiliation, you would think they were get-tough-on-criminal politicians from a conservative-leaning state like Alabama.

So much for California being a bastion of liberal politics -  Proposition 36 disproves that idea. Additonally, longtime Californians will recall the case of Rose Bird as an example of what can happen with an unwavering stance on the death penalty, much less the wrath of conservatives.     

Seeing how Californians have swung to stricter law and order measures and the 2016 voter rejection to abolish capital punishment, not to mention Trump's increased popularity in California, we predict in the next few years, some wily Democratic politicians will run for and win statewide office on a law and order agenda that includes the resumption of executions of death row inmates.

The pendulum has swung hard in California, so don't be surprised when a discussion of the resumption of capital punishment surfaces.

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay