hedging your bet?

 I hear the Democrats are campaigning to allow prisoners to vote. My first thought is why? They are in prison because they committed a crime. A crime is a behavior we do not allow in our society, hence they are removed from society. They should not get to participate in society until they have paid their debt. Seems clear enough to me. That is why it is called a penal system. The object is to penalize the offenders. The removal of the privilege to vote should be a part of that penalty.

 Now felons lose their right to vote while incarcerated and for a period of time following that. It varies a great deal from state to state. Makes sense to me, you committed a federal crime you should be excluded from participating in federal elections. They do not lose that right forever, they must earn it back. No different really than losing your driving privileges for traffic infractions. When the debt is satisfied, the license is restored. Currently there are about six million felons in the United States. That's about 2.5% of the population. If they were all allowed to vote and all voted for the same party/candidate would it change the results? The short answer is, no. That is partly due to the electoral college. So the question remains, why the push to allow them to vote? 

 Well, here is my theory. It is a feel good thing proposed by the Democrats. It is purely a political move to entice felons to vote for their party. Same reason that party supports all manner of socialist programs and concepts. Give the people what they ask for, even when they don't know they want it! Allow or excuse any behavior as long as it benefits the party. The concern is not with America, the concern is with gaining control. If it takes surrender to gain victory, that is what they will do. What I mean by that is the surrender of moral and ethical standards. Do not punish offenders, convert them!   In this case they are well aware it won't make any significant effect on the election process, at least not by the felons votes, the hope is others will vote Democratic because they are so inclusive. IE: The democrats will not hold you to a standard of conduct. The Democrats will give you whatever you want as long as you vote for them. They will tax everybody and anything to accomplish that goal, well except you, the working man right. Hah, the Democrats are responsible for the workers unions and union workers are doing great right? Yeah, that's also the reason you are paying thirty thousand dollars for a car and five bucks for a box of Cheerios! But keep voting for that. 

 I don't know any felons, not that I'm aware of anyway, and haven't spoken with any. I suspect however it is a very small number of them that are concerned with their voting privilege. I know we are not supposed to generalize, exceptions can be found, but for the most part I just don't believe they care. In presidential elections only about 60% of the eligible voting population casts a ballot, in mid terms that drops to 40%. So we could say given that about 600,000 felons could be expected to vote in a presidential election. That's not many, there are more " dead " people on the voting roles than that! But I won't go into that. A recent Gallop poll shows that 4.5% of the population identify with the  LBGTQ community. Yet, the politicization of that group can't be denied. Yes, it's identity politics. And now the Dems want to be identified with the felons! Could be because a number of them are, or at a minimum should be. Maybe it's forethought, and not empathy after all. Could they vote themselves out of jail? Nothing like hedging your bets is there.

 No this push to give felons their right to vote is nothing more than a feel good thing. It serves no other purpose whatsoever. Fact is the Democrats have no platform to stand upon and are grasping at anything and everything they can to gain a foothold. For two years after having failed to secure a fixed election they have been grasping at straws. And now the economy is at an all time high, unemployment numbers are down and ( grasp ) even the minority groups previously expected to support their agenda are in question. OMG We need more minority groups, how about felons? How about Muslims? The Democrats even invented a third gender in an attempt to expand their base. 

 Well, this too shall pass. I'll keep listening. So far I haven't heard much of substance from the Democrats. It'll be interesting to see how this election shakes out.