Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris say that convicted felons like the Boston Marathon bomber should be able to vote.

Senator Bernie Sanders. USA Today/AP.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, both running for the Democratic nomination for president, have said that convicted felons, like the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, should be able to vote while still in prison. USA Today. The two were asked about it at a CNN town hall event and Sanders was also asked if he supported restored voting rights for convicted sex offenders as well. Sanders said that removing voting rights, even for someone like Tsarnaev, was a "slippery slope" despite felons voting from prisons only being allowed in Vermont and Maine. Sanders acknowledged that the statement would likely be unpopular. Kamala Harris said we should have a "conversation" about the issue and said she opposed lifetime bans on voting for convicted felons. A third candidate, Mayor Peter Buttigieg, said while he did support felons having their voting rights restored after their sentence, he did not support felons voting from prison. 

My Comment:

When I saw this story making the rounds yesterday night on social media, I assumed that it was false or fake news. I figured that both Senators Sanders and Harris had been taken out of context and hadn't been directly asked this question. While Harris was a bit more cagey with the question, I didn't believe that Sanders and Harris would just out and out say that they supported giving Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his voting rights back. Amazingly enough it was true. 

There has been a big push from the left to give back felons their voting rights. Though they claim it's all about making sure that everyone has a right to vote (which I don't think is a good thing in the first place), I think it's much more cynical than that. It's mostly a ploy to gain more voters in crucial swing states that can propel them back into the presidency and help make sure they stay there. Certainly, that's where Kamala Harris is coming from, but I do think that Sanders probably does believe that they should vote on moral grounds. He has always been very extreme in is political positions and has defended his ideals that are unpopular.

Obviously there are huge problems with allowing felons to vote from prison. The most obvious one is that you are giving felons the power to decide elections in close states. This means they will inevitably vote for the party that will give them the most perks and privileges. Since prison is supposed to be a punishment, this undermines the whole purpose of imprisoning them in the first place. Why not commit crime if you can just vote to be released? 

Another problem is that people don't want these kinds of people to have a say in society. People like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev aren't anywhere near the mainstream politically and giving him the right to vote is about as responsible as giving him a gun. I'm all for restoring gun rights for certain non-violent felonies but giving someone a gun while they are currently is madness, just like giving them a chance to vote. He's already proven that he can't act in a solemn and responsible manner as he has killed at least 3 people, why give him a say in how this country is run?

This is not going to play well for Harris and Sanders. I get the feeling that they both may have lost the Massachusetts primaries and if they are the candidates chosen, they may even flip the state to the GOP. The Boston Marathon bombing is still fresh and Tsarnaev is still hated there. I'd imagine that if I went to a working class bar in Boston and said that Tsarnaev deserved to vote I'd probably be leaving that bar with a bloody nose at least. 

And it may cause further problems with the feminist wing of the party. Remember, it wasn't just Tsarnaev that was cited as an example but convicted sex offenders as well. Feminists are going to hate this as they want sex offenders punished as much as possible and don't want them voting against them. 

I do have to say that the question itself was suspicious. It was framed in a way that made it sound about as bad as possible, associating it with one of the most despised people in America. While I do appreciate the fact that letting Tsarnaev vote would be an obvious consequence of restoring felon rights while in prison, it seems that someone was out to get Sanders, Harris and Buttgieg. Sanders and Harris fell into the trap while Buttgieg handled it much better, but you have to wonder if this was less of an own-goal and more of a trap...