Short Op Ed by David McReynolds, Socialist Party Presidential candidate in 1980 and 2000

In the past couple of weeks the media carried a report on what is perhaps the sickest debate yet between Bush and Gore.

Both men were asked what they would do in the event a pregnant woman faced execution. Bush said that as a compassionate conservative who believed in the sanctity of life he would postpone the execution until after the woman had given birth, and then carry out the execution. Gore, the liberal, said he would let the woman make the choice as to whether she wanted to be executed while pregnant, or to give birth to a child she would never see.

There are times in political life when one is tempted to give up. How is it possible for two men, running for the nation's highest office, not to recognize the obscenity of even responding to this question? The death penalty can seem to be an abstract issue, but posed in this most painful way it helps us - and should have helped Bush and Gore - to see how wrong it is. The correct answer to this question is - "abolish the death penalty."

For Gore, who is willing to do anything to get elected except take a political risk on any issue, there is no surprise in his answer. But Bush and the Republicans, with their deep concern for the "right to life" and "family values" underline once more how shallow that concern is. Kill the mother but save the child? Unspeakable!

Let's look at another aspect of the justice system which involves "right to life" and "family values." With two million Americans now in jail, (not counting those on parole or being held bending trial), the prison system is breaking up families, separating husbands and wives, fathers and mothers from their children. Only the fact that those caught up in the "justice system" are almost invariably poor prevents this from being the deepest scandal in America today.