“There is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress,” Mark Twain once famously wrote. And given a national debt that’s approaching twenty-seven trillion dollars, it’s hard to argue with him.

But our nation beyond the Beltway has many criminals, just as it always has. And the most ambitious of these, the felons, have historically been denied the right to vote. This seems like a win-win, though: Law-abiding citizens can take comfort in knowing that their votes aren’t being canceled by criminals, while criminals can rest easy in knowing that they don’t have to spend the first Tuesday in November standing in line to vote straight-ticket Democrat.

Until now, that is.

Unfortunately, the party of Boss Tweed, Alcee Hastings, and Hunter Biden has finally caught on — and so has its friends in Big Media. As the Washington Examiner’s John Haughey reports, “MTV, Comedy Central and VH1 jointly donated $250,000 to pay fines, fees and restitution for about 1,250 Florida felons otherwise eligible to vote in November’s election. The donation from the networks’ parent corporation, ViacomCBS, was made to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), which has raised more than $4 million, enough to pay off fines and register 4,000 felons to vote before the state’s Oct. 5 registration deadline.”

So Dan Rather’s old network, ViacomCBS, in addition to sabotaging presidential elections by publishing “fake but accurate” news stories, is now paying for felons to vote. Why, it’s as if they somehow knew felons were overwhelmingly predisposed to voting for Democrats. Which, of course, they are.

Even NBAer, social justice warrior, and money-grubbing ChiCom sympathizer LeBron James is getting into the act.

James, the LA Laker whose net worth is nearing half a billion dollars, has reportedly partnered with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to reach out to convicted felons and offer to pay whatever outstanding fines may be keeping them from being eligible to vote. “We’re teaming up with LeBron James to break down barriers to voting for people w/ felony convictions,” one of their text messages reads. “Do you know anyone that needs their fines & fees paid off so they can vote?”

James has taken some heat lately, and deservedly so. His public pronouncements of late have been unfavorable — even inflammatory — toward law enforcement. He was recently called out by LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who challenged him to match the $100,000 reward being offered for the apprehension of a cold-blooded Compton cop shooter who’s still at large. James, not surprisingly, wasn’t interested.

It seems pretty clear, then, that if law enforcement, law-abiding citizens, and President Donald Trump are on one side, LeBron James feels more comfortable on the other side — the side with the Democrats and the felons.

And he’s not the only rich guy who feels that way. Nanny-statist and failed Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is also trying to get out the felon vote for Biden. As The Washington Post reports, “Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and his team have raised more than $16  million to pay the court fines and fees of nearly 32,000 Black and Hispanic Florida voters with felony convictions, an effort aimed at boosting turnout for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.”

Furthermore, according to a Bloomberg memo, “We have identified a significant vote share that requires a nominal investment. The data shows that in Florida, Black voters are a unique universe unlike any other voting bloc, where the Democratic support rate tends to be 90%-95%.”

Clearly, Bloomberg isn’t beneath racially profiling ex-cons and throwing money at them if they can just cast a vote against Trump, the president who in 2018 championed and signed bipartisan criminal justice reform. The derangement and duplicity run deep with Little Mike.

Is it legal, though, to pay money to people for the express purpose of getting them to vote? Election lawyer and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner J. Christian Adams doesn’t think so. “Federal law makes it a crime to pay for or offer to pay for or receive money for voting,” Adams says. “So Bloomberg might be putting these people right back in jeopardy of federal prosecution.”

Summing it all up, we have convicted felons, Mike Bloomberg, LeBron James, Big Media, and Joe Biden on one side, and Donald Trump on the other. Could the contrast be any clearer?