I wish I'd seen this before replying to the other comment. Now it'll be two parallel discussions.

Can't really disagree with anything here. You're perfectly right to question the ethics of such a policy. It's just an idea that popped up. I'm not saying I'd implement it immediately after becoming the prime minister. Simply something to think about, like we're doing right now.

To solve this debate, I think there are two main questions we need to answer first.

1. Is everyone unconditinally entitled to voting rights, regardless of their situation?
2. What is the objective of a democracy?

Personally, I'd say that:

• Not necessarily. If you want to have a say in how your community operates, you should not be actively harming that community. If you can't be bothered to pick up your trash and throw it into a trash can down the street - it seems clear to me that you don't care and/or value the community, and so cannot be trusted to influence it with the best of intentions. Of course, excusing special situations.
• This one is more complicated. At the roots, I think we can all agree that the overarching goal is to have a fair, well functioning system that promotes positive change. Do people leaving trash around facilitate that objective? Not in the slightest. Would temporarily restricting their voting rights lead to improvements? Would it be fair and just? Hard to say. Not sure I have an answer here.

I wrote that it's "extremely rare". The subsequent "never happens" was not meant literally, which I expected to be obvious to anyone reading the entire comment.

Of course, this happens everywhere around the world. I'm not arguing whether or not it happens here, but to what degree. And it is self evident that the degree to which minorities are discriminated in Europe is magnitudes lower than in the USA. Europeans may have invented racism, but Americans sure have since perfected the craft.

Perhaps you're right about my proposal being a potential source of serious issues. I can't say it's not at all possible. However, my main point here is not to apply American standards to the European Union. It's like saying that restrictions on ICE vehicles in Canada won't work, because the same policy wouldn't work in Eritrea.