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… using the word “felon” as pejorative impacts everyone with a felony conviction.
By Joshua Hoe (Leading with Conviction™ 2021)
So, my message to the Democratic Party is this, Do better. When you say Trump should be disqualified because of a felony conviction, you are giving the thumbs up to discriminating against and demonizing millions just to make political points. This is not OK.
And yes, that is what you are saying. You are saying, “Because Trump has felony convictions, he should be disqualified from politics.” That logically presumes the same to be true for everyone with a felony conviction — which is about 20 million Americans. Focus on Trump’s bad policies or on his refusal to accept responsibility for his bad behavior. There is plenty to criticize him on with Project 2025 and his past record as president. Words matter, language matters, and using the word “felon” as pejorative impacts everyone with a felony conviction.
Joshua Hoe is Senior Policy Manager at Dream.Org and 2021 graduate of the Leading with Conviction™ program. Republished from his Twitter/X (with edits) by permission. He was at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago when he wrote this piece.
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