Building a nation of Know-Nothings?
If you have an hour or two, read through the comments by the readers marching in lock step over the spread of “lies” by right wing radio hosts suggesting that President Obama is a Muslim or that he hasn’t shown his real birth certificate.
The first “liberal” comment suggests we need an IQ test as a requirement for voting, and it goes down hill from there. Just as a point of historical reference – following the civil war, literacy tests were one of the ways Southern Democrats tried to exclude former slaves from voting for Republicans during Reconstruction. Literacy tests are explicitly barred by the Voting Rights Act…
Barack Obama has the power to make all of this go away in 30 seconds. Sign a release of his long form birth certificate, allow his college transcripts to be released. Release his passport records (not his current Presidential passport, which means nothing).
“Know Nothing” is a reference to the movement that split apart the Whig party in the 1850s – the Whig party would eventually die out with the formation of Lincoln’s Republican Party…. (At least I assume the use of the slur was on purpose by the author – the comments don’t seem to know the implication of the title of the opinion piece or are silently agreeing with it).
Given the current constituency base of the Democrat Party, they would only be hurting themselves if we reinstated IQ tests for voting rights. Do you really imagine that any of those people in Detroit looking for “Obama cash” would score over 80?
Actually, I think we should go far beyond the old literacy tests. Citizen voters should have to prove they have a “stake in the game”. In other words, unless you can prove that the taxes you’ve paid in (lifetime) exceed your net income from government sources you shouldn’t be allowed to vote. It’s a clear conflict of interest. This simple step would strip all welfare recipients, government employees, beltway consultants, and defense contractors from the voting roles! :)