Conservative Columnist: Poor People Shouldn’t Vote

[marmar]

Conservative Columnist: Poor People Shouldn’t Vote


This is one of those moments in politics when an ideology unleashes its id. In a stunningly out-of-touch recent column, right-wing commentator Matthew Vadum said that poor Americans—or what he calls “nonproductive segments of the population”—really just have no place voting.

The column published in the conservative online magazine American Thinker opens with this gem:

Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote?

Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Welfare recipients are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery.

Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country—which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote.

Vadum’s conspiracy-theory nonsense of a thesis is this: registering welfare recipients to vote amounts to a targeted effort to undermine American democracy because Richard Cloward and Frances Scott Piven (who are also long-time targets of Glenn Beck) tried to overwhelm the welfare rolls of New York City to prove a point—in the 1970s. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/662491/conservative_columnist%3A_poor_people_shouldn%E2%80%99t_vote/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And wingnuts shouldn't write columns.

I don't understand how he could even type that out on his computer with his head that far up his ass.

[Turbineguy]

2. The poor shouldn't vote

and the rich shouldn't pay taxes.

[WingDinger]

3. Try it, and the poor will vote for guillotines.

[TheWraith]

4. I wish I were shocked. I'm not.

Very little they say could shock me these days.

[mainegreen]

5. The same twisted logic can be used to deny rich people the right to make...

campaign contributions.

Why are right-wing activist groups so keen on protecting various forms of campaign contributions?

Because they know the rich can be counted on to vote themselves more exemptions, loopholes and corporate welfare by subsidizing the campaigns of corporatist politicians. Billionaires are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery.

Allowing them to funnel money into elections is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower an elite wealthy class of the population to destroy the country - which is precisely why zealously supports allowing the loopholes that allow limitless campaign contributions.

Fixed.

[louis-t]

8. Ooooh, send this to him. He needs to see it.

The guy's a clueless jackass.

[rhett o rick]

6. I would love to hear his definition of "non-productive". Is Paris Hilton productive?

Is Vadum productive?

[arbusto_baboso]

7. They don't even try to hide their class hatred anymore.

And then they have the balls to call progressives "elitist"????