When asked at a CNN town hall this week if he believed that incarcerated felons should be allowed to vote, socialist presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders responded: “This is a democracy and we have got to expand that democracy, and I believe every single person does have the right to vote.”
What about someone like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber? “Yes,” Sanders went on, “even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.”
Slippery slope, indeed.
After spending decades incessantly repeating the “America is a democracy” lie—liberals, of course, tend to scoff when you point out this jejune detail —the only logical conclusion, ideologically speaking, is terrorist suffrage, I guess. “Every vote” means every vote.
Now, there’s a rational argument to be made for allowing Americans who have served their time and paid their debt to society to fully participate in American political life. Certainly those who’ve never committed violent crimes shouldn’t have to surrender their civic rights forever. The notion that incarcerated murderers should be weighing in on gun laws or that child molesters should have a say on local school bond issues or that a terrorist’s vote should have an effect on American foreign policy, however, undercuts the liberal contention that casting a ballot is a sacred act.
Most of the cynical anti-republican ideas that Democrats are willing to entertain these days—getting rid of Electoral College, giving children the right to vote, etc.— are popular because gullible activist types believe they would create more Democrats. There’s probably a better way to rally support for the Green New Deal than enlisting the Unabomber’s support. (Then again, when we consider the specifics, maybe not.)
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See Also:
(1) Democrats’ Relentless, Fruitless Hunt for the Great Orange Whale
(2) Mueller report: Donald Trump collusion conspiracy theories are now exposed. Will they end?
(3) Trump’s army of ‘the uncovered’
(4) Mueller Investigation Was Driven by Pious Hypocrisy
(5) The Obama Use of FISA-702 as a Domestic Political Surveillance Program
