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Originally Posted by Host
yup....Thompson panders to the racism and homophobia of his constituents...they all do, because their party has to convince folks to vote against their own REAL interests. While the southern white vote streams in and elects corporatist republican candidates because of their "guns, God, n' gays" platform, Thompson and the former republican congressional majority were easily able to pass "bankruptcy reform", against the interests of Tennesseans who experienced the highest rates of home foreclosures, in the US. it works great in Utah, too....another heavily republican state with high foreclosure rates.
It's win win for big corporations and for ignorant fundy christian racist gay bashing idiots lulled into believing that a corporatist shill like Thompson or Bush....are "on their side"....
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That's what I figured. I wonder what's worse: being a massive bigot yourself or being a hypocritical tool of bigots....I'd say the latter. At least with the former, one can simply blame ignorance. The latter is knowing bigotry.
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Originally Posted by seretogis
You picked a bad example, since involuntary manslaughter is just that -- involuntary. First degree murder and first degree murder committed due to the criminal's hatred of homosexuals is still first degree murder and should be punished equally and harshly.
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I'm sure you know what the word motive means. We punish differently for different motives, as I made clear in comparing manslaughter to first degree murder.
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Originally Posted by seretogis
I do not want to criminalize bigotry or ignorance.
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It's a compound problem. We're not punishing bigotry alone (though there are laws against hiring practices that are bigoted, which I'm sure you agree with), we are punishing bigotry that leads to crime. There is a huge difference between the two concepts.
I like Jinnkai's take on this comparing a hate crime to premeditation.