If so, then why?

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    He can, because there’s no law against it. Probably nobody thought there’d ever need to be!

      • Pronell@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Actually the thought is if the government can just imprison you to stop your candidacy, they have too much power.

        Thus they can continue to run.

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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          I would say just don’t break any laws then, but laws can change and people are terrible.

          Edit: Pretty sure you’re all downvoting a misunderstanding.

          I’m saying I get why it’s a thing because people would convict their opponents. Not that I was actually saying well don’t break any laws.

      • essell@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Remember, there is a mechanism that prevents criminals from winning elections and holding offices, it’s the one that’s the best one in a democracy. The voters.

        It’s not good to give governments the power to decide who does and doesn’t deserve to hold authority, it is good to let voters decide if someone’s crimes are relevant to the election.

        Sadly, it seems many Americans do not agree with me that trump is not suitable for office. Hopefully enough do that they decide not to vote for him

        • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          We’ve got these things called “social media” that are built expressly for the purpose of influencing people to buy more stuff (literally in the name: influencers). And if it can get people to part with their money, you can be sure the same tools can be used to get people to vote against their own interests.

          We thought the internet was a tool to spread democracy. We were wrong. The Internet is a tool used to undermine democracy, so long as people using the Internet are not strongly inoculated against organized interests, foreign, and domestic.

          • dudinax@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            Who thought the intent was to spread Democracy?

            The Internet’s been both very good and very bad for Democracy. Without the internet, most people would be at the mercy of CNN or Fox to explain all the horrible things Donny Two Scoops has done.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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        5 months ago

        The concern of the founding fathers was that one state would have political reasons to rush a trial and get a legitimate candidate convicted of a crime in their court. If the conviction was legitimate, it was supposed to be handled by the Electors of the Electoral College.

        • Nougat@fedia.io
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          5 months ago

          If the conviction is legitimate, the Electoral College has ways to shut that down.

      • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Our lack of laws around the POTUS are a glaring. It’s insane that a judge can preside over a case where the defendant is a former president who appointed them. Like Judge Cannon and 3 members of the SCOTUS.

      • Alimentar@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Don’t forget, it’s not like he has a right to the presidency. The president is voted in. So technically speaking the people decide if the felonies make a difference or not

      • pdxfed@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Also, you can’t vote in many regressive, discriminatory states but they’d like up in their Klan hoods to vote this felon into office as there is no restriction on becoming president. Rules for thee

    • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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      5 months ago

      My man Eugen Debbs ran from prison in the early 1900s. He was thrown in prison for speaking out again the war (the first amendment wasn’t much protection back in the day).

      It is good that he could run, since he was a political prisoner. He advocated for the common man against the corrupt institutions.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Agreed. There are situations where it totally makes sense to have a felon run for president. This isn’t one of them

    • not_fond_of_reddit@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      But the kicker is that he isn’t allowed to vote right? New York restore voting rights after you have completed your sentence if I remember correctly.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Keep in mind that the founding fathers were guilty of what would have been considered a lot of grave crimes by England, which was formerly the jurisdiction that applied to them.

      So they probably wouldn’t have had a huge appetite for blocking political rights of criminals given their recent standing.

    • Sean@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      If a convicted felon loses their right to vote, they should not be allowed to run for president.

    • SickofReddit@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      And if he wins again, he’s going to Pardon everybody who buys one from him. Including himself. Because there’s no law against it, and nobody thought that there ever needed to be for that either.

        • mcherm@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          He can appoint two new members to the Supreme Court and then have them rule that Trump, as President, is immune to being prosecuted or held responsible for any state or federal crime but like Bush v. Gore it isn’t a precedent and doesn’t apply to any other President.

  • symthetics@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    You’d think the bad publicity alone would be enough to destroy any chance of election. You’d think.

    • Jackthelad@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Not when he has been creating a narrative since 2020 that he was the real winner of that election and all these court cases are just designed to try and stop him from being President.

      His supporters have bought the premium subscription to this narrative, so nothing is going to change their minds. In fact, the more court cases there are, the more support he gets.

      Even though going after him for his alleged crimes is the right thing to do, I actually wish they’d just let him fade into obscurity instead. Because all it has ended up doing is helping his campaign.

      • Fubber Nuckin'@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Well then you’re just letting him win. He’s still going to do his thing and get supporters. Convicting him gives some amount of validity that he’s doing something wrong. Unfortunately he got his hands on a lot of gullible people before someone better could, so we can’t change their minds no matter what we do. Hopefully making his crimes so public will make those not fully converted less likely to buy into his cult.

        • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          Our best hope is that “undecideds” realize that it’s not a good idea to vote for him. Gotta get the lead paint chip eating fence sitters to wake tf up.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Bad publicity is relative.

      The “bad publicity” when he is an odious asshole? His base loves that, they think they all should be able to say that stuff out loud.

      Legal problems? Well they firmly believe it’s just a conspiracy to witch hunt and every case serves only to fuel their persecution complex

      Anything else? Lies by the liberal media, they see the truth on Fox News. When Fox News even reports on it, then they shun them and off to newsmax or just their favorite Facebook posts.

  • OlPatchy2Eyes@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yes, and it’s important that felons be able to run for president. Were that not the case, a corrupt enough system could just disqualify anyone that would seek to oust it.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      This is true.

      But, it must also be pointed out that that’s another case of good faith actors getting fucked by assholes. In theory this sounds good, like free speech and tolerance for all. But when you are dealing with criminals and sociopaths those virtues get used against you.

      • OlPatchy2Eyes@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Absolutely, and it’s infuriating. The only thing that can stand between criminals and sociopaths is the vote, and a too much of the vote is controlled by morons.

      • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        Yeah but honestly without implementing ‘one true philosophy’ I can’t see any ground to stand on where they shouldn’t be allowed to.

        What if god comes down tomorrow and says ‘the fuck you guys are keeping babies instead of killing them?!?’

        To us we really got no frame of reference of an absolute ‘good faith’ or bad, so enforcing it just seems like encouraging abuse of the system.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Good and bad faith doesn’t refer to anything about religion.

          Acting in good faith means you’re not using deception or hypocrisy and your words and arguments reflect your true beliefs and the intent behind your actions. You use words to express what they mean.

          Acting in bad faith means you present a false front to deceive others into thinking you are someone you are not. Your words and arguments do not align with what you believe or why you act. You use words to get what you want or confuse those who might otherwise oppose you.

          Not that that distinction makes it any easier to recognize good or bad faith in general. Or to convince those who put their faith in bad people that they should re-examine their position. It just doesn’t necessarily refer to any kind of religious experience.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yup! Because that’s the law. The original idea was to keep people in power from being able to outmaneuver their opponents by having them arrested. That was back when politicians and corporations had some level of public accountability though.

      • meeeeetch@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Debs ran from prison (for the high crime of telling people that WWI was none of our business and people shouldn’t enlist to get turned toa pink mist in Belgium) in 1920

        As for voting as a felon, that varies state to state. I don’t think there’s anyplace that allows people to vote from prison, but quite a few states let convicted felons vote once they’ve completed their sentence and any parole that follows it (and in some states, pay additional fines, which sounds a bit like a poll tax to me, but I’m not one of our nine kritarchs, so what do I know about that sort of thing?)

        As for people running for office when they couldn’t vote, Elizabeth Cady Stanton ran for office well before she could have voted, and the first woman elected to Congress (Jeanette Rankin) was elected in 1916, several years before women’s suffrage was added to the constitution, though her state, Montana, had allowed women to vote already.

      • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Sadly, Florida, where Trump lives, defers to the State of conviction, and in NY, as long as you aren’t currently in prison, you can vote.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The Constitution spells out who is eligible to run for President, and does not say criminals are ineligible. It’s as simple as that.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      I do find it odd that you guys put so much emphasis on a document written in a time nothing like today.

      Like surely it should evolve, but I can see how that would go right now so it’s probably for the best.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        We do amend the Constitution from time to time, but it takes a 2/3 vote in both houses of Congress, plus ratification by 3/4 of states. so it’s quite a high bar.

      • wagesj45@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        Just because an idea is old, doesn’t mean its a bad idea. And we do have mechanisms for modifying the constitution. We just don’t do it often because it requires a lot of agreement.

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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          5 months ago

          I think we have more enlightened and more informed views now than 270 years ago is alls I’m saying.

          Just the right to bare arms is such an example. Weapons are completely different these days.

          • Wolfeh@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I exercise the right to bare arms as often as possible, and my farmer’s tan is proof of that.

          • FireTower@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            That’s the problem. No people ever think they’re the unenlightened ones. Society changes but not always for the better.

            The Constitution is a safety rail to protect us from ourselves.

          • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            I think we have more enlightened and more informed views now than 270 years ago is alls I’m saying.

            Bruh with literally every country on the planet turning more fascist by the day that’s a bold statement to make

            • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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              5 months ago

              I mean it’s like y’all are forgetting that slavery was well more prevalent in the western world, although there could be an argument for wage slavery today.

              The fact that being homosexual, trans, or whatever else was condemned and you would go to prison for such things.

              The world today is fucked, but it was a lot more fucked a couple of hundred years ago.

      • stinerman [Ohio]@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        We don’t have parliamentary supremacy. What we have is what we have. A rough equivalent is that (assuming you’re a UK citizen) the Lords could still veto bills and the Commons couldn’t force the issue.

      • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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        5 months ago

        Yeah it’s because Americans are fucking terrible at governing.

        The vast, vast majority of Americans do not care about their elected officials. Most do not even know who they are, and just vote based on party affiliation or don’t vote at all. Our government structure also fundamentally doesn’t work, and we would be far better served adopting a parliamentary system like the rest of the developed world, but nobody cares enough to do anything. Our courts are corrupt thanks to Donald Trump, gerrymandering means our elections are hardly fair, the list goes on.

        America has an apathetic government that accomplishes very little and is easily captured by hostile forces because it is exactly the level of government Americans are willing to put in the effort for.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The Constitution doesn’t do that, that’s up to the states. Also, you don’t have to be eligible to vote to be the president. The US Constitution outlines the only eligibility requirements for the president.

  • dudinax@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    The congress can still impeach Trump for a third time even though he’s not in office, and if the Senate convicts, they can ban him from ever holding public office again.

  • AvaddonLFC ☄️ 🤘@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    yes, felons can campaign for president and be elected. technically it’s even legal for the president to be locked behind bars while serving.

    • Sean@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The sad part is that despite being a convicted felon he will most likely never see the inside of a jail cell.

    • sygnius@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I wonder if the secret service would need to be locked in the cell with him.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Yes. And he’s not the first to run a campaign from prison (though he likely won’t go to prison for the 34 felonies. Prison is extremely rare for those kinds of charges. even if he wasn’t trump.)

    some more info

  • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Yes. The constitution is actually shockingly specific about what the qualifications are. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

    No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

    No other qualifications can be considered, barring a Constitutional Amendment.

      • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        So far that hasn’t really been tested in court, and when it has (Trump v. Anderson) it’s not been upheld in that way.

        Look I’m not saying I like it. I’m saying it’s not really that straightforward.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      Where does it say that no other qualifications can be considered? It certainly lists a lot of qualifications that are required, but doesn’t say that it’s an exhaustive list.

      • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Those are not the minimum qualifications. They should be read as “anyone who meets them is eligible” rather than “no one who fails to meet them is eligible.” The Rehnquist court found that states could not add a felony exclusion for Congressional candidates in the 1990s and that is broadly considered to extend to the Presidency as well. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1456

        If the constitution doesn’t say it, it’s not typically intended to be assumed true. The constitution doesn’t say that felons can’t be president - so we can’t assume that the states or congress could pass laws forbidding them from being president. It specifically says you can’t be president if you’re 34 or were not born a US citizen. If the writers wanted to exclude felons, they would have said so.

    • takeheart@lemmy.world
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      The 35 year old requirement seems bizarrely high to me, I can’t see why a smart and capable 32 year old should be prevented from running for the office. A minimum age makes sense, but it’s weird that it’s far removed from when most states start to legally treat kids as adults (anywhere from 16 to 21).

    • higgsboson@dubvee.org
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      Not necessarily. New York law is that felons are only kept from voting while incarcerated. And since FL law refers to the other States for their residents, Trump will be able to vote for himself, unless he is behind bars. I doubt he sees time in a cell, but I’d love to be wrong.

      • SnausagesinaBlanket@lemmy.world
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        In New York they still need a Certificate of Relief from Civil Disabilities signed by the convicting judge to be able to vote. Source: Me

  • AIhasUse@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The current record for number of US presidental votes received while in prison is about 1,000,000. Eugene V. Debs is the record holder, and that election was in 1920. Trump just may beat him this year. There is no law that says you can’t be president while in prison.

  • BobaFuttbucker@reddthat.com
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    Question: How the shit does the US legal system claim that “High crimes and Misdemeanors” disqualifies someone from being President, but 34 FELONIES is ok?

    Answer: because the people in charge don’t care.

    I’m glad he’s been convicted but any idiot can see that this should disqualify him.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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      It’s because the mechanism for adjudicating the high crimes and misdemeanors resides in the legislative branch. They have to adopt articles of impeachment and then convict and remove the President.

      If any state crime felonies could automatically disqualify a candidate it would create perverse incentives that should not reside within the power of one state, because of the abuse potential. For example, Texas could drag Biden into court on felony jaywalking charges.

    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I just don’t get how someone convicted for ELECTION FRAUD can still be a presidential candidate