• Eol@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    So you can be the president if you’re a felon but felons can’t vote?

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yup. Authoritarians often criminalize their opponents to prevent them from running, like Putin did to Navalny. Even if banning felons from office could have positive effects, it’s also a dangerous flaw that bad actors in power could exploit to maintain their power.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      As to the first part, yes. If the founders had blocked federal office due to a felony conviction, just imagine the clusterfuck. 200+ years of anyone and everyone trying to get a conviction, of any kind, on their opponents.

      • Rev3rze@feddit.nl
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        5 months ago

        Same thing goes for the second part. It’s a roundabout way to block federal representation of certain groups of people. This is why automatically being blocked to vote because of a conviction shouldn’t be a thing. As you say that would (and does) lead to a clusterfuck.