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Felon Disenfranchisement
moniker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
No Taxation Without Representation!
Battle Cry of the American Revolution. And yet:
5.3 Million American citizens are denied the right to participatory governance due to criminal status. Also, people living in DC and resident aliens/foreign nationals. Yet all of these individuals are being taxed by a government to which they have no voice nor means of influencing how that money is spent. Is that fair, or is it a blight on the ideals of this country which needs reform?
Battle Cry of the American Revolution. And yet:
5.3 Million American citizens are denied the right to participatory governance due to criminal status. Also, people living in DC and resident aliens/foreign nationals. Yet all of these individuals are being taxed by a government to which they have no voice nor means of influencing how that money is spent. Is that fair, or is it a blight on the ideals of this country which needs reform?
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There. Feel free to now have a 40 page discussion about why I'm wrong.
Because you're British and it's the 4th of July.
You're not wrong, you're British. There is a difference :P
And if this were happening to a group of white, middle- or upper-class people, there's no way in hell it would be allowed to stand; but we let it go, because it's happening to a group which is overwhelmingly poor, and disproportionately minority.
I honestly have no idea what you mean by that. As in, I cannot parse this sentence.
Little help?
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Not only is there a fundamental fairness issue here, but there's also a perspective issue: we decide that an entire group of people with unique experiences aren't entitled to vote in this country. How the fuck are we supposed to reform the justice system when the people who have most directly experienced it aren't allowed to have any input on how it works? Felon disenfranchisement is one of the reasons that police in this country are so incredibly fucked up; because they know that the people they screw over will be completely ignored.
I think that there is a lot more voting disenfranchisement, in general, in our nation that really gets ignored. I think what we really need, as a nation, is to go back to those roots of "no taxation without representation" and figure out what they really mean to us.
The fact that my grandparents, living in DC, couldn't vote for President always astounds me. The way that certain politicians actually try to prevent DC from having representation in congress continues to piss me off. How can anyone justify that to themselves (other than, "they'll vote different from me, therefore they shouldn't be allowed to vote," which IS an indefensible reason.)
That's just saying it is legal to deny people suffrage, not that it's right to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUhwA-C-ACg
Well, considering the only (and yes I do mean the only) party that has a problem with DC having representation in Congress are the Republicans, it just fits into their pre-determined view of who should (Republicans) and who shouldn't (anyone who could possibly vote for a Democrat) vote.
The fact that stripping felons of their voting rights is statistically more likely to influence minorities and the poor seems to be a definite violation of equal protection.
We're number one!
Sure does.
Also usually has one of the lowest percentages of voter turnout of modern democratic non-rigged elections.
So because I am able to influence the city council on that local bond measure for a new library building I shouldn't have a say in the Federal government either?
I'm not saying that I don't understand their internal reasoning, I'm saying that it astounds me that they are able to get away with this bullshit.
Personally, I believe it has a whole LOT to do with the racial make-up of the city.
My issues fall more to the specifics. Career criminals potentially voting for easier means of committing their crime, or for lax enforcement of the laws they routinely break, for example. I think there's got to be a better way of keeping this sort of thing from happening than denying the vote to huge cross-sections of the populace, but simply opening it up has it's own problematic implications.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
That voting system that appears to be designed to promote voter apathy is a really nice touch.
Offical. China probably has more people per capita in various shadow prisions and the like. Not that being number two is anything to cheer about in this case as we are the beacon of hope and freedom and they are an opressive authoritarian regime...
What makes you think we don't already have this?
The system we have min place now only deals with folks who get caught.
It abso-fucking-lutely does.
If DC was in any way a Republican area it would already have full voting rights. I really do not think I am engaging in hyperbole here.
U S A !!
U S A !!
U S A !!
More likely it's due to the political make-up of the city.
Even if they were WHITE democrats, they'd have representation.
It's because they're black that everyone forgets to care, or tacks on gun bills to the voting bills that the residents of the district themselves oppose.
Why?
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
By the same rationale, we now need to start denying the right to vote and lobby to rich, white people. I mean, have you seen what the financial services has done with the power they have? Enforcement of financial regulations is ridiculously lax, and even when people do get caught, they get off far too easy. We need to start disenfranchising the wealthy in order to maintain our "tough on crime" stances.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Because every Congress Critter is going to leap over each other to get the endorsement of the American Association of Imprisoned People?
That was directed at the first half of the sentence.
Look, I'm just playing devils advocate in a forum that gives every indication of coming down very strongly on the side of felons' rights.
I'm not sure how I became the face of the opposition here.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.