 For those of you that tuned in to CNN's five town halls on Monday night, you'd know that the Boston bomber came up Now the reason why he came up was specifically because we were talking about Voting rights and the expansion of suffrage to prisoners now as a progressive I was incredibly pleased to see candidates being asked about voting rights Specifically for prisoners the problem is that the way that the CNN hosts who asked these questions Framed it was so that way no matter how you answered the question It was lose lose if you said that you support prisoners rights in terms of them being able to vote Well, then it looked as if you were sympathetic towards the Boston bomber and had some strange affinity for him However, if you said that you don't support the rights of prisoners voting then Clearly it shows that you're not very progressive And you're not savvy and you're clearly not knowledgeable about this particular issue and why it's important for us to expand Voting rights to 100% of the population now I want to show you the answers that the three candidates gave who were asked this question I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people people who are in Convicted in prison like the Boston Marathon bomber on death row people who are convicted of sexual assault They should be able to vote. I think we should have that conversation while incarcerated. Yeah, no, I don't think so So who's right here? Well, obviously Bernie Sanders is the most right He answered in a very principled way and even though he knew he was going to be smeared because of this answer He held true to principle because obviously I think he was cognizant of the fact that they were trying to Headline farm. They were fishing for a particular headline and they got exactly what they wanted now Kamala Harris She didn't necessarily shut out the possibility. She said, this is a conversation that we should have I kind of see that as a dodge But nonetheless, she was still lumped in with Bernie Sanders Pete Buddha judge. He just is flat out wrong Because the thing about this year, even if he got applause from the audience It communicates to me that he doesn't actually know enough about voting rights or he simply doesn't care about voting rights But nonetheless, we'll get into that But I want to look at the headlines that were produced after this town hall was finished filming the national review rights Sanders and Harris we should restore the Boston Marathon bombers voting rights The Hill states 2020 candidates say Boston Marathon bomber should be able to vote from prison And of course they have a photograph of him. They're framing this as Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris specifically want the Boston bomber to be able to vote just him So do you see what's happening? They're distracting you from a really complex nuanced and important conversation that we should be having as a country Now what CNN did here was they teed up an attack on these Democratic Party primary contenders and then Fox News Did exactly what you'd expect them to do they smeared Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris and made it seem as if they are now Pro-terrorist does this mean that you would support in franchising people like the Boston Marathon bomber a convicted terrorist and murderer I do believe that even if they are in jail, they're paying their price to society But that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy Well, our next guest was so one of the first firefighters to respond to the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three people and injured more than 260 the Democrats tackle stuff that truly matters can our terrorists here still vote Terrible people. So how terrible is Sanders talking about cannibals? Convicted spies. How about terrorists who killed children? Oh Yes, said Bernie Sanders. They get the vote too. We're gonna let sex offenders murderers terrorists vote from prison What a plan for America's future and that is only one candidate. So do you understand what's happening? Do you see how the media is incredibly disingenuous and how they can? monopolize a particular Discussion to reframe it to make someone who they don't like look bad. Do you see what's happening here? This is exactly what priming looks like It's when the media deliberately creates a narrative that makes you think about a certain political issue in a very specific way So that way when you start thinking about the possibility of letting prisoners vote You're now thinking about this in terms of the Boston bomber So whenever we talk about voting rights whenever we talk about universal suffrage whenever we talk about consolidating democracy and making our democracy more equitable and opening it up so everyone has representation This is what they want you to think about the Boston bomber. So this is how propaganda works This is how the media can completely retool a specific subject in order to serve a very specific purpose and Understand that it's not just voting rights where they can use this argument This is applicable to basically any universal or redistributive economic policy They can say oh, well you support Medicare for all. Does that mean that you support Medicare for all for pedophiles and rapists? You support free college. Does that mean that you support free college for? Sex offenders as well. Do you see what they're doing here? They want you to deny yourself and all of society justice So that way we can make sure that the people who are the worst in society don't benefit But this is not a very intelligent way to be talking about voting rights And it's why other countries have expanded voting rights And they now allow prisoners to vote and that includes Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Israel Ireland Norway Spain And Sweden just to name a few and in fact Norway literally allows prisoners to partake in television debates because they focus more on Rehabilitation and second chances than punishing people which is what we do in the United States And I want to share a couple of tweets that really demonstrate that there's an inherently hypocritical undertone with this entire Conversation because to suggest that Bernie Sanders who's taking a pro Democracy stance here is in the wrong It undermines what they've been trying to promote at that very same town hall remember that a supposedly centrist individual from Harvard asked him why he wants Soviet-style authoritarian communism in the United States So they're saying that he's authoritarian, but simultaneously He wants to expand democracy Do you understand how they're trying to use two different smears that actually are mutually exclusive and conflict with one another as This tweet puts it Bernie takes heat from people who wrongly conflate Socialism with authoritarianism and then the same people attack him for saying people in jail should maintain their right to vote Pick a lane and then this tweet from me also highlights the absurdity Dick Cheney George W. Bush and Henry Kissinger are mass Murderers that still have the right to vote, but nobody seems outraged about that Nobody who seems outraged by this people like Megan McCain They don't want the Boston bomber to vote and they think that we should make sure that all prisoners are not allowed to vote Just to make sure that the Boston bomber specifically is denied the right to vote But with that being said, they're perfectly fine with war criminals who have the blood of innocence on their hand Thousands of innocence on their hands those people can vote those people can walk freely in society Dick Cheney George W. Bush who should be in prison for the rest of their lives because of the war crimes that they committed George W. Bush and Dick Cheney literally catalyzed the Civil War in Iraq. They are responsible directly for thousands hundreds of thousands of deaths and nobody has a problem with them voting So if you are against murderers voting then you actually do have to be consistent here But really I don't even want to go down that path because this isn't about whether or not we should allow murderers to vote This is a broader conversation that we're having about voting rights And I want to share a thread on Twitter from an individual who does a phenomenal job explaining how this isn't about the Boston Marathon bomber. This is about how our racially biased criminal justice system Targets black and brown Americans quote what annoys me about this question is that about three in every 1,000 rapes result in jail time most rapists never lose the eligibility to vote So incarcerated people having the right to vote isn't about terrible people voting It's about whether you believe people who are disproportionately oppressed by an unjust system still deserve to elect their representative I think yes I reject the idea of Depending on an unjust system that is racist sexist genderist Classist etc to determine who is eligible to vote or not by that logic naturally richer and whiter rapists basically never have to worry about losing the right to vote because they're like never Incarcerated but the poor black and brown ones. Sorry no votes for you We have rapists in our governments schools police forces churches cough white house cough They're everywhere and they vote and don't get me started on low conviction rates for pedophiles So the overall point is that terrible people will vote no matter what but you need to make a choice Do you care more about democracy or do you care about punishing the people who were caught committing crimes? People who oftentimes are black and brown and get locked up at a higher rate than their white peers I want to share some more stats that I think really paint a more broad picture So the United States has more people in jail per capita than any other Country the prison population Exploded as a result of bad policies past such as the war on drugs and the war on crime The number of people in jail for drug-related offenses increased Exponentially since 1980 the number of people serving life sentences has also increased and blacks and Latinos are locked up at far Higher rates than their white counterparts now on top of that the prison population is counted in census data Which means that same data that counts prisoners is used to draw congressional districts, but yet they don't get to vote So we're literally seeing Effectively the repeat of the three-fifths clause and people are a okay with it And I think Bernie Sanders also demonstrates how felon disenfranchisement is another form of voter suppression South Carolina has a higher incarceration rate than any country on earth African-Americans are 27% of the state population, but 60% of the prison population our racist criminal justice system Disenfranchises millions. This is quite simply voter suppression now on top of that There's a legal and I think constitutionally sound argument for allowing prisoners the right to vote as Cory Bretschneider of Politico reports telling prisoners They cannot vote is premised on the idea that convicts undergo a sort of temporary civic death a suspension of normal rights as citizens While they are behind bars and indeed that was once true of prisoners in this country But the federal government has made strides away from the notion of civic death over the past century in recent years The Supreme Court and Congress have affirmed a variety of constitutional rights for prisoners They have rights of religious freedom under a 2000 federal law Prisoners also retain some First Amendment free speech rights to hold and express political opinions Most important the Supreme Court decided that prisoners cannot have their citizenship stripped as a punishment for a crime as Justice Earl Warren wrote in the 1958 case Trap the doles citizenship is not a right that expires upon misbehavior Although he did acknowledge this Warren's insight shows us why ex felons deserve the right to vote if prisoners remain Citizens and retain their civic status throughout their sentences Then it follows that prisoners should enjoy the most basic of their civil rights the right to cast a ballot Disenfranchising them creates a class of people still subject to the laws of the United States They were after all punished under that law But without a voice in the way they're governed not unlike taxation without representation In the end restoring these basic rights is not only the right thing to do constitutionally It could also present positive solutions to a major national political problem The prison system would be more effective if it were accountable to its constituents Prisoners have often committed heinous crimes But they remain a part of our democratic polity and we can learn from what they have to say And the problem that this would help solve is voter apathy We live in a country with one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the developed world And that is absolutely a disaster because the health of democracy depends on participation And if you have half of people in this country essentially not voting That could spell disaster. It means our democracy may not be able to survive So if you believe in democracy then understand this isn't about the boston bomber I don't think it is just to say That hundreds of thousands of people potentially should be denied the right to vote just to make sure We don't let people like the boston bomber vote So when you see media outlets trying to push this narrative understand that it's propaganda and all that they're trying to do Is dupe you into taking an undemocratic position. So however, this is framed I'm glad that bernie sanders did not take the bait And I wish that kamala harris would have come out more forcefully because she knew what was happening She knew that when don lemon was asking her that question These types of headlines would be produced pete would have judged however He decided to take a more cowardly stance and not stand up for what's right because he was worried about the potential political ramifications. Well, look I'll keep it simple here. If you believe in democracy, then that means that 100 of the population deserves to vote It's that simple and if you honestly think that It's worth denying suffrage and re-enfranchising hundreds of thousands of people serving Just to make sure that the worst in society doesn't vote Then I really question your line of thinking I really do because even if somebody like the boston bomber votes Overall, that's one vote But the negative impact of that would be mitigated by other people voting In prison and exercising their right to vote And what's the implication with the boston bomber voting? Let's say he votes. Who's it gonna vote for? Another murderer I mean look what donald trump is doing in the middle east and north africa. He's droning these countries illegally He just vetoed a bill That would have stopped the united states government from being complicit in south east genocide in yemen So don't pretend like murderers aren't already voting and serving in government. This isn't about the boston bomber Don't get distracted. This is about voting rights And shame on the media shame on cnn shame on fox news for trying to distract So they can smear these candidates for taking a principled and just stand here It's disgusting, but don't fall for it because they're trying to dupe you. Don't let them do that Humanist report to support the low-radix humanist report sad my views are much higher