It’s a long-established fact that leftists, in their unquenchable quest for power, have absolutely zero shame or self-awareness. No degree of cognitive dissonance, either on their part or the part of those subjected to their insanity, will sway them. They are more than happy to assume any position, then assume another position that directly contradicts the logic of the first position, if that furthers their goal of obtaining and holding onto more control over others.
It’s uncanny, and it’s one of the great frustrations of debating with these clowns about anything. Why is it OK to burn down a police station in Portland but not OK to walk uninvited through the US Capitol? Why is it OK to gather en masse during a ‘deadly pandemic’ to protest the death of George Floyd but not OK to gather for a religious service? Why is it OK for the rich and powerful to fly around on private jets but not OK for the plebes to have a gas stove?
I could fill a column just listing the kind of stuff that makes us all want to bang our heads into a wall, but the latest example deserves a space all its own. In Maryland, Democrats are currently trying to push through a bill that would protect anyone under the age of 25 from being charged with the crime of felony murder. Yes, you read that right. The so-called Youth Accountability and Safety Act would amend the state’s felony murder provisions to prevent anyone younger than 25 when the crime is committed from being convicted of first-degree murder.
Under current Maryland law, anyone who murders someone while attempting to commit the crimes of arson, robbery, rape, carjacking, and a host of other serious offenses can be charged with first-degree murder. If passed, this bill would mean young men, which comprise the vast majority of those charged with such crimes, would all receive a lesser charge which would likely not carry what would otherwise be a well-deserved sentence of life in prison.
Now, why would Democrats, even the most far-left among them, come up with such insanity? The ‘logic,’ such that it is, goes that the frontal lobe of the human brain isn’t fully formed until the age of 25. Apparently, according to these geniuses, there’s a switch in our brain that activates at 25 years to tell us that murdering someone while burning down a building or stealing a car is morally wrong, or at least punishable by a lifetime of imprisonment, and should probably be avoided. There’s no way to fully understand all that nuance, like raping women and killing them is bad, don’t you know, until you’re 25, according to Maryland Democrats.
Maybe it’s a misguided way to reduce what Democrats feel is an inordinately high prison population. Maybe they want crime to increase because they secretly hate law-abiding working people. Maybe they are going after the under-courted ‘young felon’ vote. It’s hard to tell, but regardless of motivation, the proposal makes zero sense. While it’s true that the frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until one’s mid-20s, that in no way precludes someone from knowing the difference between right and wrong. And even though younger people are certainly more prone to making more stupid decisions as a whole, as any of us who were young once can attest, removing the penalty for said stupid decisions doesn’t do one thing to deter crime or ease the victims’ pains.
But the worst ‘bang your head against the wall’ part of this insanity is the fact that Democrats are more than happy to play the age card in any direction that suits them. A teenager may not be capable of restraining from the act of cold-blooded murder, but they are fully of sound mind when it comes to - you guessed it - making an informed, wise choice about who wields the levers of power, or consenting to have functioning body parts removed and/or taking hormones that will affect them for a lifetime.
From constant leftist calls to refuse to try teenage murderers as adults (despite the fact that they committed a very ‘adult’ crime) to people like Vincent Schiraldi, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's choice to head the Juvenile Justice Service, who believes nobody under 21 should face the criminal justice system at all, Democrats are constantly downplaying accountability for a group that commits an out-of-proportion percentage of all murders in this country. Such policies, if enacted, will only serve to increase the number of such crimes.
What about the victims? What about deterrence? What about justice? What about raising kids to know the difference between right and wrong so they are less likely to commit such crimes in the first place? I’m all for finding other ways besides prison to punish many forms of non-violent crime, but Democrats’ bizarre fixation on ‘solving’ mass incarceration by going soft on people who violently prey on the public isn’t just bad policy, it’s evil to the core.