.
Before anyone starts feeling a little sorry for John Ellis “Fredo” Bush (that’s the worst of being a leftist, it saps your capacity for raw hatred), here’s Mother Jones on his very personal history of making sure the “wrong people” wouldn’t be able to exercise the franchise:
Shortly after midnight on September 14, 2000, James Ghent slipped out of his Miami home, climbed into his car with a suit, a toothbrush, and a change of underwear, and drove nearly 500 miles to Tallahassee to ask Jeb Bush for his rights back…
Ghent completed his final prison sentence in the early 1990s and his parole in 1995. He got clean. He remarried and raised a family. He went back to school for a degree in radiography.
But like everyone convicted of a felony in Florida, Ghent permanently lost his right to vote, serve on a jury, and run for office. The only way to regain these rights was to petition the governor for clemency. Ghent believed voting “should always be a right,” but he was also motivated by economic concerns. He couldn’t receive a professional license to practice radiography unless the governor granted his petition. And so on that September morning, Ghent descended into the basement of the state Capitol with dozens of other petitioners for a unique Florida ritual: ex-felons entreating the governor and members of his cabinet for the restoration of their civil rights.
These hearings, held four times annually, begin promptly at 9 a.m. One by one, ex-offenders like Ghent approach a podium, where they have five minutes to make their case. A red light signals their time is up. If the governor recommends clemency, and if a majority of the cabinet members agree—and they almost always do—the ex-offender’s civil rights are restored. If the governor feels otherwise, the petitioner returns home without the full privileges of citizenship…
Bush issued his verdict as soon as Ghent concluded his pitch. “I’m going to deny the restoration of civil rights,” he said. He wanted to see Ghent remain on the straight and narrow a bit longer, to prove he had really changed his ways. “I hope you come back, and I wish you well.”
Fifteen years later, Ghent remembers the sting of those words. “He was very dismissive,” says Ghent. The ex-felon wanted to push back against Bush’s decision. But he simply said, “Thank you,” and turned away.
Ghent was destined to remain an unwilling member of an unlucky club: the legions of Florida citizens—disproportionately African Americans, like him—who since the Civil War have been barred from the democratic process because of past convictions. Florida is currently one of three states that permanently disenfranchise everyone with felony convictions, even after they have completed all the terms of their sentences—a practice that today excludes nearly 1.5 million Floridians from voting, including about 20 percent of the state’s black voting-age population. Under Bush, some low-level offenders regained their rights without appearing in person. But for many ex-felons, including some convicted of minor drug crimes, the only way to prevail was to show up and plead for clemency.
The year Ghent stood before Bush at the podium, the consequences of felon disenfranchisement were particularly profound. The 2000 presidential election was ultimately decided by a 537-vote margin in Florida. More than 500,000 ex-felons were barred from the polls, including at least 139,000 African Americans, who vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. Their exclusion almost certainly changed the outcome of the race. The beneficiary, of course, was Jeb Bush’s brother.
Bush, today a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, did not invent this quasi-monarchical process. But he did embrace it. Mother Jones obtained more than 1,000 pages of transcripts of clemency hearings held during Bush’s tenure. Together, they provide a glimpse into his moral reasoning as he weighed the worthiness of the appeals by thousands of ex-felons hoping to regain their rights. The transcripts, covering two years of hearings, show that Bush seems to have relied on an entrenched set of personal values in his rulings. If a crime involved alcohol abuse—such as DUI manslaughter cases, which were relatively common—he liked to see several years of complete sobriety before he would restore the person’s rights. He was loath to approve the applications of petitioners he felt were not sufficiently remorseful or did not take full responsibility for their crimes. He sometimes asked wives in attendance to keep their husbands in check. Ex-felons needed to prove, over years of good behavior, that they had reformed. Bush often denied clemency simply because he believed not enough time had elapsed since the completion of the petitioner’s sentence. He did not appear to question the basic premise of his judgments: that the right to vote should be contingent on a citizen’s moral rectitude…
Felanius Kootea
Oh this makes my blood boil! I want Jen to be so thoroughly trounced that no member of the Bush family seeks public office in the next 20 years.
That said, what would it take to change Florida’s approach to stripping citizen’s of their voting rights even after they’ve served their time? The article points out that this wasn’t a Bish invention.
Felanius Kootea
Bish = Bush – can’t edit on my iPhone.
RaflW
Ghah! I just get so sick of these stories.
There are folks in MN who are working to try and get a more uniform and civilized policy here – if you are in prison, you can’t vote. Once out, on paper (ie: supervised release) or off, you can. A few states have adopted the in/no, out/yes formula.
I think it helps in several ways, not the least of which is it is a clear and easy line. But it also helps those who are trying to re-integrate into society to feel like they have a role and at least some voice.
I loathe many GOP policies, but the systematic taking of voting rights is high on my list of moral crimes and misdemeanors.
RaflW
@Felanius Kootea: Jen Bish, the undeclared GOP wild card!
Yatsuno
@Felanius Kootea: I want George P Bush to be stuck in Texas politics. Forever.
Patricia Kayden
“Ghent believed voting ‘should always be a right,’ but he was also motivated by economic concerns. He couldn’t receive a professional license to practice radiography unless the governor granted his petition.”
You would think that a Conservative like Jeb! would have wanted to help out a working man who showed such get up and go after coming out of prison.
Jeb! is a jerk so this story is simply one more stain on his character. Hopefully, Black voters in Florida will be part of the wave which puts another Democrat into the White House. Jeb! can watch that happen with the rest of us next November. His mother was right when she said we don’t need any more Bushes in the White House.
Betty Cracker
@Felanius Kootea: There’s a petition drive to get the 700K signatures for a constitutional amendment proposal on the 2016 ballot to change the law. Not sure how that’s going or if it would pass if it did make it to the ballot. Other than that, it would take a Democratic governor and state legislature to make the change. The Republicans know how much disenfranchisement benefits them politically.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@RaflW:
I agree. I see the rationale of taking away voting rights while someone is actually incarcerated since they give up certain other civil rights when they’re convicted, but there is NO rationale for refusing the vote to someone who’s served his/her time and is trying to re-integrate into normal society.
RSA
@RaflW:
LOL. Felanius Kootea, you have made life just a little better.
dmsilev
@Real Change: You _are_ Jeb himself, aren’t you?
Look, some unsolicited advice. Most of the people here aren’t voting in the GOP primaries. Go pester the comments at RedState instead.
gratuitous
@RaflW: Run under an assumed name, eh? Gotta work better than his present strategy.
Felanius Kootea
@RaflW: Damn auto-correct :(. I guess Jen Bish is the younger sibling of Rub Bish.
Rising Above
Once the “Three Rs” are complete the voters (and more importantly, the donors) will come flowing in. A real craze, a bandwagon effect–and at just the right time!
dmsilev
@gratuitous: Maybe tonight he’ll be wearing one of those Groucho Marx fake-mustache disguises. “Bush? Never heard of the guy. My name is
ShrubTree. Yes, Tree.”Felanius Kootea
@Yatsuno: That sounds like good punishment for a Bush.
NotMax
@Real Change
Aw, racist one trick pony has a new name.
What a maroon.
Mike J
@Rising Above: The donors are more important to you than the voters?
Rising Above
@Mike J:
“Donors make voters” , that’s the saying in the campaign.
REAL change begins at 8:00 tonight!
JPL
@Rising Above: Bqhatevwr
Felanius Kootea
@Betty Cracker: Oh I hope this works and that local Dems solidly back the petition drive.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Sure there is a rationale: it keeps Those People from voting. That’s an evil, disgusting rationale, but that’s why the rule is the way it is.
RaflW
Loose change, tonight at 8pm!
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
The rationale is that the prospective voter may not have fully proven that they deserve the privilege of voting. Conservatives view a lot of rights, especially that one, in a very fundamentally different way than we do.
EDIT – This is not incompatible with @Roger Moore‘s answer. Being black and voting for Democrats are both things that really cast doubt on whether you deserve to be able to vote, for example.
hitchhiker
The way this reads, it’s like Jen Bish was just arbitrarily extending the court’s declared punishment because he felt like it.
What possible harm could come to society if an ex-prisoner were allowed to vote, serve on a jury, or run for office?
Is the fear that they’ll vote for murderers? Or screw up trials by letting murderers go? Or get themselves elected to some job where they can be corrupted?
I mean, I know the real reason for this kind of law — but what is the fake one?
Anoniminous
I see old UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH BRINKS TRUCKS REBOOT!!! is back.
Frankensteinbeck
@hitchhiker:
This is so incredibly obvious to conservatives that many of them have trouble putting words on it. It’s just Right to not let Bad People have any power. There is a canned ‘They will change the system to further benefit criminals like themselves’ answer, if that’s what you’re asking for.
Surreal American
@Rising Above:
To another TV channel, presumably.
JPL
The semi pro or kiddie debate, as some call it, is suppose to start at six. I’ll be reading updates on NYTimes. If the first question is how to you deal with inequality, expect Jindal to mention abortion and Lindsay to mention ISIS. Just my guess though.
Roger Moore
@hitchhiker:
I guess the rationale is that they’ve shown themselves not to be trustworthy members of society who deserve to have a say in the way we run things. It basically goes back to the idea of seeing voting as a privilege rather than a right.
Yatsuno
@Anoniminous: Meh. Not interested in giving out troll food.
But Jeb is done. His outside donors are feeling the limits of their cash and the tea has steeped to the point where it cannot be diluted by the megarich. Not to mention there are TONS of these stories out there and we’ve barely even had to discuss Terri Schiavo.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: “it would take a Democratic governor and state legislature to make the change.”
I guess that it’s not going to happen then since Florida’s government is firmly controlled by Republicans (at least for the next few years). Sad.
Mathguy
I am drawing a blank coming up with a nonfictional family full of more fks than the Bushes. Even a mob family hasn’t done as much damage to America as these assholes.
Gin & Tonic
@Rising Above: REAL change begins at 8:00 tonight!
At 8:07, actually, as the Mets take it to KC.
Kay
Voting rights are a great, great issue for Democrats. It “broke thru” in a way it hasn’t before beginning in 2012 in Ohio. It was wonderful to watch rank and file Democrats, many of them not at all affected by voter suppression tactics, just “get it” in a way that felt like a tipping point. There was a quality of attention to the issue that I haven’t seen before. On election day I got two outraged calls on ballot placement. Ohio rotates the name at the top on the ballot when they print batches so it changes- a voter in one area of the county will have Romney first and another will have Obama first. It’s fair, because ballot placement matters. Anyway, they were paying enough attention to call me and complain that Romney was first on their ballot.
Attention to detail ! :)
Clinton is going to flog the hell out of it, successfully.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yatsuno:
Yeah, but who are they going to give their Brinks trucks full of cash to? Trump can’t be trusted, Carson is too crazy AND too black, nobody seems to take Fiorina seriously, and everybody else is even more a loser than Jeb:(.
Anoniminous
@Yatsuno:
I’m thinking the notion somebody has to win the GOP nomination may be stress tested. It may be, after ten weeks of convention shenanigans, they’ll wearily say, “Fuck it. Reboot the RomneyBot.”
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@hitchhiker:
I think Frankensteinbeck is right — to conservatives, voting is a privilege, not a right, so they don’t see what the problem is with deciding that they can arbitrarily pull that privilege away from you like a driver’s license.
PurpleGirl
A convicted felon being able to obtain a professional license has been a problem in most states for a long time and distinct from the return of voting rights. For years NYS had training programs in the prisons for becoming a barber. The hitch, once out, the ex-convict could not get the license needed to become a barber. I don’t know if that is still the case but for many years it was.
lgerard
This process is barbaric, like something out of Game of Thrones with jeb! giving thumps up or down based on an elevator speech.
It’s not just voting rights, as in the case of Mr Ghent, it is the ability to join the middle class in a professional capacity, the right to further your education through loans and grants. and even the right to rent subsidized affordable housing or serve in the military.
I wonder if he enjoyed passing thoughtless summary judgement on all those people?
Myiq2xu
ROFLMFAO
bemused
@RaflW:
Republicans fervently believe in redemption and atonement for sins but only for some of their own which are determined by political, religious and financial benefit analysis.
LWA
Maybe someone else touched on this in the comments, but the disenfranchisement of felons has to be paired with the the overpolicing and incarceration of black people to be properly understood.
When black people are so highly targeted for felonies, it amounts to a one-two punch that effectively disenfranchises them for being black.
Sandia Blanca
Jen Bish for President!
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
Jeb has a long history of being a bad campaigner. When he first ran for office on 1994, FL Gov, a voter asked him what he would do for AA Floridians and he said, “Probably nothing”. He lost. His advisors got him to tone down the hard line rhetoric and he won on the 2nd try proceeding to do worse than nothing for black Floridians and all the rest of the “wrong” people and issues. He’s still a bad campaigner with foot in mouth disease but he was born into a family of dolts.
thalarctos (not the other one)
In Maine and Vermont, criminals retain the franchise even while in prison. Dang, but I love New England.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@hitchhiker:
I like this. Yes. From now on he’s Jen Bish. Not Jeb! or Jeb? but Jen Bish.
Ripley
Rational Optimism Failure Leaves Me Forever An Oppressor?
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
To conservatives, losers and moochers and Those People vote for politicians who promise to dish out free goodies paid for with hard-working (white) people’s hard-earned money. Stopping them from doing that makes everything–suppression, trickery, etc.–fair game. ETA Those People would screw you, and probably are already, so screw them right back, or preemptively if that’s what it takes. “Rights” vs. “privileges” is just stuff they learn to parrot from radio hosts and Fox News.
Patricia Kayden
@bemused: He actually responded “Probably nothing”?!!! He couldn’t come up with a flowery lie just to appease the questioner? Wow. He’s definitely dumber than Shrub which I thought was impossible.
J R in WV
Does anyone know if Mr. Ghent ever got his citizenship back? After that hard work I would hate to think he never got a job in his specialty.
Republicans in politics suck.
I don’t understand how the few decent folks I know who are Republicans can stand to be associated with their party’s positions. It seems insane to me that a real Christian who actually pays attention to what J C supposedly said can be a Republican, with all the hate that involves. But there they are, confounding the averages.
Arclite
I’m surprised he granted any clemency at all.
RaflW
@Kay: I would say that MN’s come-from-behind win on preventing a Voter ID Amendment, also in 2012, could be part of the shift on the issue. It was polling as a nearly sure win just a few months before the vote, yet a few simple facts given to voters (and a great final ad) made a huge swing possible.
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
Yes! According to Int Bus Times article linked at Raw Story. I was just thinking about so many of GW”s jawdropping remarks and Barbara saying things were working out well for the hurricane refuges in Houston and on and on. No one in the family is very bright, too entitled to learn social skills and resentful they might need to. Why would they worry their brilliant minds over things like that? It’s a huge problem when Jeb can’t even fake it even when running for president.
JaneE
And this is the state that elected Rick Scott – twice.
bemused
@J R in WV:
I have decent Republican friends and relatives but we avoid talking politics. I have to think that they are embarrassed in varying degrees with the GOP clown show. I doubt any of them could bring themselves to ever vote for a Dem but hoping they are disgusted enough with their party to stay home and not vote at all.
RaflW
@FlipYrWhig:
Apparently you helped Bobby Jindal come up with his new tax plan in the kiddie debate. He is saying that everyone must pay so that they won’t want to be takers any more.
It’s bugfvk insane, but he is representing what, ohhhhhh, 27% of the voters think.
bemused
@RaflW:
While at the same time Republicans tells those voters they want to do away with SS and Medicare. What do those idiots do when they hear that, stick their thumbs in their ears to block it out?
FlipYrWhig
@bemused: They trust that Republicans really only want to hurt Those People. Thus when Republican policies hurt Us Good People it’s by accident and the fault of those Democrats who spent up all the money and kept it from being used to help Us Good People when we really need it, not like making it a lifestyle, just to get through some tough times.
People who vote Republican chiefly want to smite their enemies and pull down the other crabs from the sides of the bucket. That’s all they stand for and all they imagine as the purpose of politics and government.
FlipYrWhig
@RaflW: IOW, Republicans think we should raise taxes on the poor. But poor Republicans know they don’t mean _them_, just the ones gaming the system, you know the ones, they’re lazy and flashy and the women have long fingernails and the men have their pants all droopy…
Kay
@RaflW:
Ours started to turn with Issue Two, which was the referendum to overturn the anti-labor law.
It was PURE self-interest. I was literally saying “your ballot issue isn’t going to pass if they suppress voting”. Just mentioning that, as an aside :)
By 2012 Democrats were completely paranoid, which is really the proper way to approach this issue. It’s one of those things where there’s two kinds of people, “security” people and “access” people. The access people are the voting rights sort. I took an election law class in law school and you could have put tape on the floor and had each group sit on “sides” the division was so clear. I think Clinton will be good at it because she uses the language of the access “tribe”- she’s one of them.
Woodrowfan
Oh this makes my blood boil! I want Jeb to be so thoroughly trounced that no member of the Bush family seeks public office in the next 200 years. (slight edit on my part)
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Um Gotteswillen.
bemused
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes, sigh but my mind still reels at the stupidity and blatant vileness. I truly think that a lot of these morons have convinced themselves they will be untouched.
rikyrah
of course, Jeb has always been no damn good
brantl
@Frankensteinbeck:
, I don’t think he’s nearly as black as you seem to think.
brantl
@lgerard: His brother enjoyed spending less than 15 minutes, deciding to leave people condemned to death, in a state that has had hordes of death penalty convictions overturned by DNA evidence.
gvg
Hmm, I am reading this way too late and it’s probably dead, so I will try to bring it up in a new thread BUT the Florida petition to restore voting rights at ACLU is paired with an amendment to term limit most state offices which I am against based on how it’s worked in other states. It doesn’t have anything to do with the title of the amendment nor the top 1/2 of the petition. I would sign it if it just stuck with voting rights. I am pretty annoyed.