I think the greatest risk in “Trump Times” has little to do with logic or reason. Recently on NPR I heard a woman speak who is heading a group in California working to maintain capital punishment, despite it not being put to use there in over a decade. Her argument was the most horrifying I’ve ever heard. Despite her acknowledgement that innocent people have frequently been put to death, she found this to be fully justified in order to protect the public and bring closure to the families of victims.

While thinking people consider lifetime imprisonment as being adequate for protecting the public (if indeed protecting the innocents, both outside prison and within, is the issue) this is swept aside in preference for the more all-encompassing reasoning of the right: “There must be death for death, even if it’s the death of an innocent.”

In this context, I’m far more fearful of losing the automatic appeal process, as a dishonest talking point from the right to make it seem as if the cost is indeed the issue instead of vengeance.