Giving Felons the Right to Vote

[Navy1960]

This as has been rightly pointed out is a matter of STATE law and if the citizens of that State want convicted felons that are in prison to have the right to vote in that state then they can. On a personal level, it's my opinion that a person in prison should have no rights to vote as they are paying a debt to society and as such they are there because they showed contempt for the laws of society , so why then should society impart on them the privledge to vote under those laws. Once that debt has been repaid however, what I do believe is that these men and women should be accorded all the privledges of citizenship including the right to vote and to keep it from them is retro-active punishment for a debt in which they already paid. Sometimes when these rights are taken away forever, what they eventually do is lead to a sense of hopelessness on the part of people who have paid that debt and they end up commiting more crimes because they have little choice. So the laws after the fact tend to be self defeating. When I was in the Navy, back when the flintsones car was a new model the courts often used to sentence young people to serve in the Military and many of them went on to careers in the Military and served honorably.

 

[DiamondDave]

rdean

First off, you partisan hack, stop citing winger sites as your 'proof'... commondreams... one of the biggest partisan hack sites you lefty wingers try and slip in as proof... LOL... yet you complain about when someone posts a Fox news article... laughable

second... try and realize too that income is not everything... do not forget to take in cost of living... you see, in a place like rural Missouri, you are better off making 50K than you are if you are in NYC making 90K

 

[mudwhistle]

Absolutely absolutely false... lower and working class whites vote red..... against their own interests.

or you could prove your assertion.

I worked in factories with them. I talked to alot of them and they said they voted Democrat for the most part.

Most of the people I talked to were dyed in the wool Democrats. Their whole family was Democrat. I asked them what they thought about Gay rights and abortion...many didn't like it but they felt that Republicans were a bunch of rich guys screwing the poor.

Makes sense to someone who doesn't know better.

You talked to some people in a factory. Oh, yea, obviously that proves it.

BuzzCharts: Jerry Bowyer on Red State Republican Income on NRO Financial

Recently the Bureau of Economic Analysis released two reports which shed a lot of light on what’s really going on in American politics. The reports show beyond question that the states that went for George W. Bush in the last election are considerably poorer than the ones that went for Kerry. The notion that the GOP is the party of the rich simply doesn’t match the economic reality.

What's the Matter with Voting Republican If You're Poor?

According to recent US census figures, since President Bush assumed power in 2000 poverty has risen by 7%, the proportion of those without healthcare has risen by 9%, and median household income has fallen by 3%. But where the poor are most numerous, it seems the Democrats are weakest. The 10 states with the lowest household median income, where people are least likely to have healthcare and most likely to live in poverty, all voted Republican in 2004. Not only are they poor, but they're getting poorer. The five states with the steepest falls in income backed Bush.

So poverty has gone up and you use this to prove that more of the poor vote for the GOP???? You forget what happened in the last election bud.

Also you forget the most of the voters in Blue States live in big cities while in Red States they tend to live in rural areas with lower incomes and a lower standard of living.....and lower taxes.
The cost of living in Red States tends to be lower in comparison to California, New York, and New Jersey where they are being taxed to the gills. So even though they might tend to make less their money spreads farther....so they aren't poor where they live.

But the big city dwellers have to make twice as much in many cases just to keep up with the extra expense of living there. So if they make the same as someone from a small town they are in poverty. $30,000/yr is nearly poverty level in California, New York, and New Jersey, where as in Tennessee it is middle-class income.