Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Q: Why else would Democrats constantly try to appoint soft-on-crime judges to our courts?
A: They know they will have to face them eventually.
Or maybe we recognize that imprisoning people has a massive cost that we have to pay for. That putting someone in prison for decades costs a LOT.
And have you ever been before a judge? For something you didnt do? I have. Its not a good place to be. Maybe thats what drives me on this topic. Maybe I understand that prosecutional discretion causes people to plead down EVEN IF NOT GUILTY because of the massive amount of jail time if they dont do so.
Nothing new here. Democrats have long been looking to abolish policies like three strikes, increasing rehabilitation, and helping people have a life after incarceration. Things seen by conservatives as "soft on crime."
The choice between a group that wants to punish those who do wrong till the rest of their days, and those who want to have people serve their time and re-enter society as productive individuals with a lives....I would certainly choose the second.
It's not that criminals vote democrat, it's that democrats see many people who do wrong not as monsters...but actual human beings. ASome are, and some are not, there is that ability to make judgements on individual cases. Also, the ability to face reality. Not like Rush Limbaugh who says people with drug crimes should be locked away for the rest of their lives...up until he was convicted of his own.
In other shocking news, we have confirmed that water is wet.
If you read the articles linked in this thread, you can find a lot of sloppy research and writing. I found only one meaningful tidbit, buried in a mound of crap:
The incarcerated are primarily the working-class poor and African Americans who traditionally vote Democratic.
While the authors don't offer any details beyond the above generalization, I expect that if you control for demographic characteristics - the big ones that come to mind are marital status, income, race, and education - as the 'researchers' should have done, the felon population is politically pretty much like non-felons with the same demographic characteristics, which include a very low rate of actually going to the polls and voting.
So right off the bat, the writers draw an invalid conclusion because they employed the ridiculous premise that if felons could vote they would vote at the same rate as non-felons.
This may be shocking to you but your so-called study only analyzed 6% of the states, what would normally be called statistically insignificant.
Also, I believe the three states cherrypicked - New York, New Mexico and North Carolina - are all more non-white than the national average, which means their felon populations are probably also more non-white than the national average.
Would they get comparable results with felons in, say, Vermont, Kansas, and West Virginia?
The study doesn't account for race. The majority of the prison population is non-white and therefore more likely Democrats. We don't lock up enough white collar criminals, they just pay a fine without admitting guilt.
Can you reference the data showing that the amount of "blue collar" crime is equal to the amount of "white collar" crime?
I'm guessing that "blue collar" crimes are much more prevalent in number than "white collar" crime, but since your post seems to indicate they are the same, it'd be nice to know where you get this.
Which works out roughly to... about half of the white felons and 80 percent of the non-white felons would vote Democrat, which isn't much different than the non-felon population.
If you read the articles linked in this thread, you can find a lot of sloppy research and writing. I found only one meaningful tidbit, buried in a mound of crap:
The incarcerated are primarily the working-class poor and African Americans who traditionally vote Democratic.
While the authors don't offer any details beyond the above generalization, I expect that if you control for demographic characteristics - the big ones that come to mind are marital status, income, race, and education - as the 'researchers' should have done, the felon population is politically pretty much like non-felons with the same demographic characteristics, which include a very low rate of actually going to the polls and voting.
So right off the bat, the writers draw an invalid conclusion because they employed the ridiculous premise that if felons could vote they would vote at the same rate as non-felons.
I would be curious to see just how many of these felons ACTUALLY VOTED AT ALL before becoming incarcerated.
As you noted, we've got a pretty low participation rate when it comes to voting.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
