Hey, remember when George H. W. Bush called for a "kinder, gentler nation," and "a thousand points of light"...? Remember when that was the new face of Republicanism?

Well... not so much anymore, at least according to Republican North Carolina state Representative Larry Pittman, who sent the following email to every member of his state's General Assembly:

"We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner," Pittman wrote in the email. "If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well."

Yeah, I know. It's just one wacko Republican from one southern state. But don't kid yourselves. If Republicans ever got the one-party state for which they breathlessly long, this would become the political mainstream, and we'd soon be hanging obstetricians in the public square.