this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Former President Donald Trump was indicted for an unprecedented third time on August 1, adding another set of serious federal charges to the mounting legal issues he faces.

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[–] Kinyutaka 72 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Even after he is behind bars. Crazy as it sounds, he can run for President from prison.

Not very effectively, but he can run.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (2 children)

One presidential candidate got 3.4% (more than all 3rd party candidates in 2020 combined) of the vote (over 1million votes) as a third party candidate while in prison in 1920.

[–] Lenins2ndCat 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Eugene V Debs. The best president the US never had.

o7

[–] FlyingSquid 9 points 11 months ago

One of the few upsides of my living in Terre Haute, Indiana is that I can say I live in the same town Debs was from. They have a nice museum here dedicated to him in his former home. If you're passing through Indiana, I do recommend an hour or two to see it. Bernie Sanders made sure to stop there during his 2016 campaign, if you need an endorsement.

[–] joel_feila 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

FDR gets all the credit but without actual leftists like Debs (and all the workers who fought in solidarity with him) we'd still be sending our kids to work instead of school.

That's who this is.

Bernie has his picture hanging on his office wall and he's basically Bernie's hero.

[–] CaptainBananaFish 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

we’d still be sending our kids to work instead of school.

We are. They're letting 14 year olds bar tend in Wisconsin and McDonalds in Arkansas has been busted for employing 12 year olds. Several states are actively bringing back child labor.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We are again.

The mistake of confusing the middle with the left over the last hundred years.

[–] CaptainBananaFish 4 points 11 months ago

Yep, we haven't had a left in a long time.

[–] Lenins2ndCat 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Eugene V Debs, a communist that ran for US president from his prison cell, securing 3.4% of the vote. Also the former state representative of Indiana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs

[–] joel_feila 1 points 11 months ago

man I want that as a tattoo now

[–] MiddleWeigh 1 points 11 months ago

I kinda cried reading these.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Felons can’t vote, but they can run?

[–] Chainweasel 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It makes sense though. Think about it like this, A politician that wanted to stay in power could disqualify his opponents by wielding the DOJ as a personal tool and nailing them with felony charges. Trump could have placed a more loyal attorney general, nailed Biden on some bullshit petty offense that technically qualifies as a felony, and have his name removed from the ballot shortly before the election. Allowing felons to run for president defangs that particular power move. To disqualify someone the 14th amendment would have to be invoked, and should be in Trump's case.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

A politician that wanted to stay in power could disqualify his opponents by wielding the DOJ as a personal tool and nailing them with felony charges

It's how Putin and other despots have been doing it for a very long time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

While I do see the validity of this argument, it still feels like treating the symptoms rather than the cause. If the fear is a sitting president welding his personal power to imprison (and thus disqualify) a political rival, isn't the bigger problem that a sitting president has the power to do this in the first place?

[–] BlinkAndItsGone 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The Justice Department has to be able to indict people, that's part of its function. And the DoJ is part of the executive branch. A good President will not use the DoJ for his personal political purposes, but the incentive to do so, if it was there, would be extremely powerful. I think it's probably a good idea to remove it. If the people can't be trusted not to vote for a criminal or a traitor, we have bigger problems.

[–] paddirn 7 points 11 months ago

The Government doesn’t want you to know about this one trick!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I've heard the logic is to prevent people from wanting to retroactively legalize shit to secure votes from felons, which doesn't make a lot of sense tbh

[–] rollerbang 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Weird. I've heard of Americans losing their right to vote when imprisoned and yet they could run for office?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Probably just an overlooked aspect, it woulf be too much of a pain to run for office while im prison. Even for a lot of the rich and powerful.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

How does that work if he wins?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If he wins, he pardons himself from federal crimes then uses his powers as Commander in Chief to break himself out of prison for state crimes, thereby creating the ultimate constitutional crisis and tearing the country apart.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Whether or not he can pardon himself is up for debate. So if the founding fathers intended that you can assume office from prison there would be a more defined method.

[–] Neoncamouflage 36 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Or we need to admit that the founding fathers may not have predicted literally every possible circumstance to arise in the future hundreds of years.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago

This isn't a new modern invention. The election process is pretty well defined.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Fuck the founding fathers, coming straight from the underground.

[–] Skyrmir 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It was intentional that you can run and be elected as president from prison. It's written about contemporaneously. They knew the risk of allowing a president, or administration, jailing their political opponents.

What's not clear is if it was meant for a president to be able to pardon themselves. I personally would think not, but many think it's permissable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

So what happens to the prison sentence?

[–] joel_feila 3 points 11 months ago

Hopfully the server running just crashes and reboots

[–] PunnyName 5 points 11 months ago

Might depend on why he's there.