Yes, obviously they are not actually changing their actual view(s) at all; their only actual view is “what we do is right, what ‘others’ do is wrong”. That stays forever unchanged, it’s just their outward-facing rhetoric that changes.
The laws around felons and felonies is a whole 'nother discussion. It’s an arbitrary category that differs by state, and was only really created in order to give a veneer of legality for punishing certain groups more harshly. But yes, I’d vote for Debs in a heartbeat.