Eugene Debs, a Socialist leader in the early 20th century, ran for President five times. His fifth and highest vote count came in the 1920 Presidential election, in which he was running while in Federal prison for sedition. He received about 3.4% of the vote at the time (which included women for the first time since the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920 as well). Not naming names, but yes, it’s possible to run for President while in prison, though results may vary.
Pointless tangential story incoming!
I first heard of Mr Debs via Kurt Vonnegut.
He wrote a book called Hocus Pocus. I saw it in the grocery store of all places (they used to put books in the end shelves at the checkout lines), and the name seemed cool, so I begged my mom to get it. I had gotten Guards! Guards! the same way lol.
It was my introduction to Vonnegut.
But the main character was named Eugene Debs Hartke. So I discovered both Vonnegut and socialism at the same time.
But it was one quote that stood out to me and still guides a lot of my thinking, "While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
That shit is real. That, to me, is the essence of what humans should keep in mind at all times. That we are no stronger than the least of us, and if we do not lift each other up, we all fall.
I’ve said a version of the idea in other ways since reading the quote in hocus pocus because I have this burning rage against bigotry. It’s this way of thinking I can’t shake, that as long as bigoted slurs exist, then I am of that group that is slurred. There’s a specific slur that got thrown around back when I was a bouncer and worked for a drag club, I’m sure you can guess what slur that is. That’s the one I first used the paraphrased quote with.
Anyway, Mr Debs, to me, exhibited everything that socialism is supposed to be, but very rarely lives up to. I’d be proud to share a cell with him.
You might like the book “American Midnight” by historian Adam Hothschild. Came out last year and all about the shit that went down in the US between 1917-1921.
Debs is talked about quite a bit and he is well regarded. It was how I learned about him and I just finished the book this week. It’s absolutely fantastic and also yes, absolutely fucking terrifying.
It’s nuts that we just kinda gloss over that time period in history. It also shows that some of the worst mindsets of today regarding things like immigration, unions, censorship/freedom of speech (the real kind, done by the government. Not the whiny cancel culture shit), prisons, etc, the list goes on, have not changed a bit in 100 years. And we’re still fighting the same battles and blaming all the bad things on all the wrong people.
Anyway, book was fantastic, cannot recommend it enough, and now as a result I’m reading “The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover” by Lerone A. Martin because I realized how little I knew about that asshole other than he was an asshole and FBI stuff.
So you can run for president in prison but you can’t vote when you’re in prison or have been in prison.
Hey America, you suck.
