October 27, 2005

WRTA

Brown Shoes Diary

From Corrupt Language to Corrupt Politics

I've seen a number of articles and reports lately on the issue of restoring the privilege of voting to "ex-felons".  Funny, but there's no such thing as an ex-felon just as there is no such thing as an ex-murderer.  The definition of felon is "one who has committed a felony."  It doesn't matter if a felon has served the entire sentence for his crime, it doesn't matter if he's made full restitution for his offense; he's still a felon.

So why do professional journalists use the erroneous expression "ex-felon"?  My guess is that the people who use the expression have a political agenda.  If a particular political party is pushing the felons' right-to-vote, I suspect the party believes that felons are likely to vote for their candidates.  It's simply an effort to garner the criminal vote.

I'd like to ask Hillary Clinton and other folks who are big proponents of giving felons the right to vote, whether the right to vote is as valuable as the right to bear arms.  If so, then I should think they'd have no problem giving felons the right to carry guns too.