It depends on what you mean by "exploit", and whether you have actual numbers on the political agendas of people who plead incapacity due to mental illness.

If the later, I'd like to see the methodology.

It's true that quite a few liberals oppose the execution of the mentally ill and mentally infirm. But around here, in Mennonite and Brethren country, some very conservative people also oppose it on religious grounds.

It's true that the profile of a liberal as defined in the popular imagination is more likely to include someone who would rather have addiction treated as a mental health problem than as a criminal offense. On the other hand, I know some Republican cops who think the same thing, for practical reasons: they don't like arresting sick people over and over.

And also, the mentally ill homeless fared extraordinarily badly during the Reagan years, but it was the Democrats who presided over the deinstitutionalization movement in the '60s, as an extreme reaction to the warehousing of mentally ill patients in state hospitals.

How many domestic violence cases are pleaded out with the promise that the offending spouse will go into therapy (because he or she has a mental health problem) rather than to jail? How many of them are conservative? How many drunk drivers go to sobriety support groups and into community service, because their mental health is damaged by addiction, rather than go to jail? How many of them are conservative?

Which group exploits mental illness more, Tom? I don't know. Do you? Or do you just know what it looks like to you?

Regards--
Mary Anne