Tom Tancredo opened up the Tea Party convention. Public Dom.
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Yesterday the Tea Party held its first ever convention in an effort to unite leaders from around the nation and provide some more organization to the new movement. One of the opening speakers for the convention was former House Republican Representative Tom Tancredo. Not surprisingly Tancredo bemoaned the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. What was a surprise was the explanation Tancredo gave for President Obama's election. Tancredo claimed that President Obama was elected became we "do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
The inferences from Tancredo's remarks are two fold. First he assumes that the voters who elected Barack Obama are mostly ill-educated and/or illiterate. Secondly Tancredo obviously believes that the implementation of some kind of literacy test would be helpful in weeding out such uneducated voters.
Tancredo may want to take some civics lessons himself before calling for such measures. The "literacy" test as it was adopted in the South was actually unfairly applied to blacks to preclude them from voting. Whites usually administered the test. Blacks were required to pass it according to the guidelines and sometimes they still were not allowed to vote since the white officials graded the test. Whites meanwhile were many times allowed to skip the test through the grandfather clause or given the answer to the test beforehand. A sample "literacy test" from Alabama can seen here. Included are the following questions:
At what time of day on January 20 each four years does the term of the President of the United States end?"
In what year did Congress gain the right to prohibit the migration of persons to the states?"
If a bill is passed by Congress and the President does not sign it and does not send it back to Congress within a specified period of time, is the bill defeated or does it become law?"
By the way the last question requires explanation and failure to fully explain would likely be scored as a wrong answer.
As a result of these tests white registration was over 100% in some counties (dead people were kept on the rolls) while black registration was near zero. Thankfully these "literacy tests" were outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
The last thing the Tea Party needs is anything to add to the perception that it an "all-white" party which opposes the rights of minorities. Unfortunately Tancredo's speech only helps to contribute to this image.
As for Tancredo's assumption that Obama voters are somehow less educated than Tea Party voters, the following video on Sarah Palin supporters may be educational.
Comments
It was a damn shame when the communists in Washington D.C. made us 'Real Americans' down south do away with the poll tax. We knew how to keep the colored folks in their place. Nowadays we even have to let the Hispanics vote.
Cracker,
You do understand (or... maybe you don't) that if there was a civics test for voting, it probably wouldn't affect any one race more then the rest. Right?
Oh wait... you couldn't understand that, because you were wearing your "RACIST!" glasses.
Everyone knows that a literacy test will violate the voting right of the hundreds of thousands of deceased voters in Cook County Illinois. This victimizes the formerly living because (do I have to say it) the dead don't read. DUH!
Did Tancredo even mention race?
Fred says:
"Did Tancredo even mention race?"
there are too many CRACKERS in this soup!...did I just mention race? no, I was talking about food...there are ways of mentioning race without mentioning race...Tancredo is a master at it.
Well, I lost my racist decoder ring. So I will be searching through CrackerJack boxes trying to find another one.
Fred says:
"Well, I lost my racist decoder ring. So I will be searching through CrackerJack boxes trying to find another one."
touche'...would that Tancredo be so openminded.
Sorry, but there's enough evidence about ACORN and it's dirty little business of fraudulent voter registration practices to deserve these comments without being called out for not caring about the poor.
Thanks Witt for calling him out for needing your civics lesson. How do you get that head of yours through your door?
Why did we stop doing this? From what I've seen it would appear that they wanted to ensure that all voters knew how the government worked. It's like having a drivers license test! Simply brilliant! Something like this would ensure that politicians could never manipulate the naive, or uneducated to vote in their favor.
Well, you know that the average negro IQ is around 80 so I am figuring that would leave most of the negros out. It's ok by me, I think they should give drug tests before giving out welfare checks every month too, and require work for able bodied people who collect it. When an idiot who doesn't even know where government money comes from wants obama to pay for their house, gas, or something it pushes the limit of border line retardation. These people should not be allowed to vote because they have no comprehension of how money is used. All they know is that they want some without working for it.
I'm all for bringing back literacy tests! While we're at it, let's include drug tests too. Why should we allow idiots and addicts an equal voice in how this country is run? We already pay for their survival with our taxes, isn't that enough? As long as they get their reality TV and welfare check, they won't even hiccup in protest.
Why did we stop doing this? From what I've seen it would appear that they wanted to ensure that all voters knew how the government worked. It's like having a drivers license test! Simply brilliant! Something like this would ensure that politicians could never manipulate the naive, or uneducated to vote in their favor.
Have you considered that the South was maybe right? Blacks are the most racist people on earth, ask any Asian, Mexican, or other non-Whites that ever encountered them. If you want to know about black racism and how they vote here's a little clip from Howard Stern about black voters in Harlem in fact I'll even provide the link at the end, they are told that Obama believed in certain conservative Republican beliefs like pro-life, Sarah Palin for the democratic vice president (yes they asked them that), and staying in Iraq to finish the war, and they said they'd vote for him since they also agreed with all these policies and Sarah. Before journalists spout off about racism they better look at the group they try to defend, what they did in PA to us Asians is just the tip of the iceberg.
(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=b5p3OB6roAg
Remember everytime you see an interracial couple with their children, it means the white race is dissolving. Carry on African-American males, impregnate the white women and make this white race a thing of the PAST!!! :) Within 10-15 years, whites will be forgotten
Oh my god I LOVE the video!!!
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