The conviction of President Donald Trump on all 34 counts of the Hush Money Case in New York has left us with more questions than answers. The main questions center around jail time for an ex-president and how it affects his campaign for a second term.By all accounts, jail time does not seem like a possibility. This is his first offense, it is nonviolent, and the insanity of locking up a president may even go beyond what the Democratic deem acceptable. However, if Trump were to serve time it still would not bar him for running for president. Legally he still has the right, and also, it’s been done before.Even though Trump does have an appeal, he is currently considered a convicted felon, but constitutionally that does not preclude him from running again. If Trump were to lose his Jan. 6 trial, then the 14th Amendment clause of being “engaged in insurrection” that would be a different story.With the Trump hush money case, Republicans are claiming that this conviction is all part of a conspiracy to keep Trump from the presidency, and Democrats claim it’s about rule of law. Both can be true at the same time.However, in 1918 a Democratic president actually did jail a future contender.The election year was 1920 and the Socialist candidate was Eugene Debs. While the Socialist Party was not a major party, it was one of the most popular third parties ever—second only to the Populist Party a few years earlier.Debs ran for President in 1912 and won about 6% of the popular vote—mostly taken from Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson, who only garnered 41% of the popular vote.America declared war on Germany in 1917. That year Congress passed the Espionage Act making it illegal to act in any way which hindered the war effort. In 1918 Wilson signed the Sedition Act outlawing “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language” about the government, president or the war.In many ways these acts were targeted at Socialists, even though their numbers had waned in recent years as the Democrats had stolen much of their thunder. Yet WWI had brought them charging back as it was seen as a capitalists’ war where the workers would suffer the most deaths. In spite of the Sedition Act, on June 18, 1918, Debs gave a speech at Canton, Ohio, condemning America’s involvement in the war. He claimed it was a capitalist war ...
