• 3volver@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Good now that he’s a convicted felon he can’t run for president just like you can’t vote, right? …right? Fuck this system.

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
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      6 months ago

      There are scenarios in which you’d support a felon running for office, it’s just this particular felon we have an issue with

      • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        No, I support keeping felons off the ballot because Republicans are the ones that stripped ex-cons of their right to vote.

        How is a criminal voting more dangerous then becoming President? That was the right wing’s justification for taking away former inmates right to vote.

        • kandoh@reddthat.com
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          6 months ago

          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?

          • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            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.

          • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            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.

            • kandoh@reddthat.com
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              6 months ago

              Buddy, I like to argue with conservatives too but you genuinely will not find any on Lemmy and I am certainly not one myself.

          • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            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?

            • kandoh@reddthat.com
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              6 months ago

              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.

        • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Allowing a felon to run is a legitimate check and balance that the people can have against the government.

          It allows for the people to correct someone convicted of a crime by an unjust law. It allows for correcting (actual) political persecution.

          This is a healthy thing.

          That said. Fuck disenfranchisement. Directly fix that.

      • 3volver@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        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.

        • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I only have a problem with this one running because he’s the only one with a chance of winning

          • 3volver@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            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.

            • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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              6 months ago

              “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.

              • Esqplorer@lemmy.zip
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                6 months ago

                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.

                • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 months ago

                  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.

                  • Esqplorer@lemmy.zip
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                    6 months ago

                    You absolutely can reference character. It just isn’t itself evidence of other crimes.

              • 3volver@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                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.

              • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                weaponized

                My state has a law on the books specifying Abuse of a Sports Official as a felony. As in, “Hey you, the umpire’s a bum.”

                As you have observed, the situation has gotten quite out of hand.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Eugene Debs ran for president from prison. He got 3.4% of the vote.

    • bamboo@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      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.