People with felonies shouldn't have been disenfranchised. That is obviously wrong.
That doesn't mean you should also do something that's wrong in response. Just because at this particular moment there would be an advantage to felons being forbidden from going on the ballot, doesn't mean that will always hold true in the future. What happens in 20 years when the Cop City protestors try to run for elected office and are forbidden because of the bullshit charges they incurred protesting?
People with felonies shouldn’t have been disenfranchised. That is obviously wrong.
Felon disenfranchisement did not become popular or widespread until after the Civil War. No points for guessing that the potion of the population also most like to be prosecuted for felonies just happen to be black men.
I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm keeping you accountable for the damage your side has already done. If you don't like it why don't you restore the voting rights of ex-cons and admit it was yet another way to subvert democracy by sealing votes away from people you know will not vote for you.
So we shouldn't hold Trump and the GOP accountable now for some hypothetical in 20 years. In the meantime the GOP continues to win elections now and for years to come because of voter suppression?
It's unrealistic that we will suddenly pass a law between now and November preventing felons from holding office. It could happen after that, but then it won't be applied to Trump, it will be applied to people on the left.
Sure felonies should be considered on a case by case basis, but there are many felons I'd have an issue with running for office, not just this particular one.
That's good bait, but I'm still not taking it. I repeat my stance, felonies should be considered on a case by case basis, but there are many felons I’d have an issue with running for office, not just this particular one.
"Case by case" for political office is so obviously open to corruption you shouldn't bother with it though, and felony definitions are already weaponized as they are between drugs and protest laws.
Hell, for that matter, isn't a public record of convictions already your best version of a case by case system?
Each voter can decide which crime matters to them..
I'm probably more likely to vote for someone that caught a felony for protesting.
It's not case by case, but crime by crime. It should be decided on a basis of rule of law as to which specific crimes, such as those reflecting character and not just a lapse in judgement.
Trump has many convictions reflecting on his character in this one trial.
Problem with that is you can't attack someone's character in court unless they try to use it as a defense so there's no way that's getting into the constitution in our lifetimes.
Practically I think that all felons shouldn't be able to run for office given the nature of the system. Ideally it would be case by case, but yes it would be corrupted and used by those in power to stop people from running. We either need to allow felons to vote and allow felons to run for president, OR do not allow felons to vote and do not allow felons to run for president. Right now the system makes no fucking sense.
Fuck trump, but convicted felons have to be eligible for office to prevent abuse. If all it took was a felony, any opposition leader would just have some nonsense charges brought against them to make them ineligible.
This was also a key motivator of the war on drugs: criminalize the drugs that black people and anti-war protesters used, and they can be stripped of their voting rights.