Richard Viguerie and L. Brent Bozell are two of the architects of the modern conservative movement, and ardent Teapartiers. They have been anathema to progressive thinkers for decades.
They co-authored an article for the Richmond Times-Dispatch this week.
It was about the death penalty.
They oppose it.
Richard Viguerie has been instrumental in the financial support of the conservative movement since the 1980s. L. Brent Bozell is the founder of the Parent's Television Council, which has protested such atrocities as Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, and the founder of the right-wing Media Research Center, which seeks to promulgate the myth that the media has a leftist bias.
Messrs. Viguerie and Bozell jointly wrote an op-ed piece in opposition to the death penalty. Their position was based on a number of grounds. First, they pointed out that neither the Old nor the New Testament stood for the proposition that the death penalty as imposed in the United States was religiously required or sanctioned. Second, they noted that the conservative principles of 17th century philospher John Locke did not require the imposition of the death penalty in modern times.
Finally, and most honorably, they acknowledged that the death penalty was not compatible with the reasoning underlying modern conservative philosophy:
[The death penalty] is an expensive government program with the power to kill people. Conservatives don't trust the government is always capable, competent, or fair with far lighter tasks.
Their logic on this issue is unassailable. If the government cannot be trusted to regulate health insurance companies, or oil companies, or Wall Street firms, how can it possibly be trusted to determine who should live and who should die?
The abolition of the death penalty is an issue around which both conservatives and liberals should rally - conservatives because it is an area ripe for the misuse of governmental power, and liberals for the same reason, as well as because of their recognition of the sanctity of the human soul.
By the way, speaking of the sanctity of the human soul - my attitudes towards Messrs. Viguerie and Bozell up to this point have been such that at times I've forgotten that their first names were something other than "fucking." Tonight, I must admit, I am a bit ashamed of that attitude. Their position on the death penalty is principled, it was brave of them to publicly espouse it (it would have been far easier for them to hide their views in the bosoms of their families) and it is more progressive than the views of some of those who comment on this very blog. Maybe it was because of moments like this that our President has been so hopeful about his view of a nation able to unite around positions which are obviously moral and/or pragmatic despite opposition on other issues.