Why Liberals Should Hate the Hate Crime Legislation Research Paper

Why Liberals Should Hate the Hate Crime Legislation - Research Paper Example It is essential to put into perspective the view that increased penalties for hate crimes are in fact justifiable, with a view to assessing its plausibility. The major reason for having increased penalties for harsh crimes is because, as opposed to regular crimes, hate crimes normally hurt a whole social group (Hurd 215). Whenever an individual commits a hate crime, it is evident that they are not doing it against the victim only, but as a matter of expressing their dislike and contempt for the whole social group. This being the case, therefore, a hate crime is not a crime against an individual, but a crime against a social group, of which, if the perpetrator of the crime could have the ability, he/she would harm the whole group. It, therefore, follows that even when a perpetrator of hate crime would seek to be charged equally with a regular crime perpetrator, doing so would be an injustice to the regular perpetrator of crime since one crime is definitely weightier than the other, ow ing to the number of individuals it hurts. Thus, there is a general agreement that hate crimes are crimes of a higher magnitude compared to regular crimes, in regard to the number of individuals hurt by such crimes, and thus should carry a higher penalty. Even when Hurd disagrees with the higher penalties attached to hate crime compared to regular crimes, there is a general agreement that owing to the number of people hurt by hate crimes, such criminals deserve a higher penalty. The second argument in support for higher penalties for hate crimes is the fact that hate crimes represent significantly greater culpability on the part of the perpetrator (Hurd 216). This is because the committal of a hate crime is a display of a long pre-meditated course of action, as opposed to the inadvertent cause of crimes. This places the perpetrator of such crimes in a more culpable position since those who plan to hurt others are more culpable than those who commit incidental crimes, without any pre -meditation (Hurd 219).

Political Discussion Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Political Discussion - Coursework Example President Nixon’s Watergate Scandal was considerably destructive because it earned him the lowest ratings in the second term as compared to other presidents. The current president, President Obama threatens to break this trend because he enjoys a conspicuous upward trend in his approval ratings since the 2012 election. Even so, the second term, riddled by the "second-term curse", is considerably rough because of the over expectations of the public. Special interest groups are good for the nation because they exert influence on the political and legal systems. They encourage democracy and ensure that decision makers settle on decisions that serve the common good. A healthy democracy is possible because of the efforts of interest groups, who neutralize bad policies, and represent minority groups. Although they have too much influence on policy, the existence of several interest groups ensures that their negotiations results in the best policies. Even so, the presence of too many special interest groups is bad because the government may fail to achieve anything substantial. They have other advantages too, such as misrepresentation of cultures, but the advantages of special interest groups make them good. From www.opensecrets.org, I learned about the influence of money on U.S. public policy and elections. Some politicians often finance most interest groups, and they use them to push their own agenda and political