Now they want to bring back 'literacy tests"? WTF?

[LuckyTheDog]

Tom Tancredo talks openly about bringing back a part of the Old-South Jim Crow system. Wow.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/tea-party-speaker-tom-tancredo-rips-john-mccain-obama/story?id=9751718

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."

[Ardent15]

1. Note to Tancredo..it's not the 20s anymore

What an asshole.

[Bitwit1234]

15. And just what are you all talking about huh

CNN says he gave a fantastic speech. I know better cause I read what he said. But can you people really truly believe how low down and dirty CNN is getting. Do they think they can out trash Fox..I guess.

[PDJane]

2. And he's being defended ......

because, you know, he's not against black people, he's against immigrants, and it's a literacy test.

No, it's not a defence, and yes, I'm seriously fed up with the whole deal.

[FreakinDJ]

14. I've always have said there is a Prejudice Element

to these folks. Same as the Fundies

[SoCalDem]

28. With a name like Tancredo, some of HIS family members

may have "arrived" here, not speaking the language and possibly, sans papers too..

[JanMichael]

3. They are EVIL not just jokes.

I hope people realize this ASAP.

The correct course of action however is probably impossible now however the Bolsheviks had one way of dealing with then.

I for one don't discount all options.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. Giving teabaggers a spelling test before voting?

Did Tancredo actually think about what he said?

Clearly he did not read their signs before going on a racist tirade.

[begin_within]

5. Literacy tests for right-wingers?

The one who typed, "Good riddens" when Ted Kennedy died?
The one who typed, "assnine" instead of "asinine?"
The one who typed, "We are screwn?"
The one who made a sign claiming Obama is a "muslin?"
The "moran" guy?

[JoeyT]

31. The civics test would be even more hilarious.

I bet well in excess of 80% of them couldn't name a single amendment to the constitution beyond the first and second. And they don't actually understand how either applies to anything.
After all, these are the same people that think anyone disagreeing with them is violating their freedom of speech.

[uberblonde]

6. You do realize...

How many Republicans would lose the right to vote? LOL

[Historic NY]

7. Tom thats why they have pictures on the ballots...Did you pay your poll tax?

[Gman2]

8. They know, cuz I been yelling it, that demographics will kill them,

They have alienated all but white males. So, they spout ID to vote. They spout poll tax. They spout literacy tests. They will whine and complain, cuz we have a whole four years, to gain more youth. We have even more numbers. They obviously took my yelling seriously, and are scared shitless. Fuck those regressive haters.

[kestrel91316]

9. Hey, it could work in our favor. Think about it. Just how many Freepers

and Repukes do you seriously think could pass a civics and literacy test? It would be a very tiny percentage.

[Cleita]

12. It would be the 10% who own 90% of the wealth of America and have the

money to be able to propagandize their mostly semi-illiterate base.

[Donnachaidh]

18. there are teachers in my son's high school who would FAIL a civics test

I'm quite serious about that -- TEACHERS.....

[DFLforever]

10. That 's one way for GOP congressmen to lose their "base".

We should start pushing for it in the border states.

[northofdenali]

29. ROFL!

That was one of my first thoughts when I heard this yesterday. Their "base" couldn't pass the easiest grade school exit exam. Maybe........... :rofl:

[Cleita]

11. I'm all for it. Watch 90% of the Republican vote be gone.

I am joking. It's just the possibilities are so tempting for one election. After that the Repugs would catch on and start cheating as usual by skewering the test results.

[LiberalFighter]

19. He wasn't saying just literacy but also civics testing

"we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

I'm willing to bet that many of the right-wing Republicans would fail the test.

This is probably the same test that Rehnquist used in Arizona when he manned the polls. He would challenge voters that he wanted to prevent them from voting. We could easily do the same as I imagine that both Democratic and Republicans are represented at the polls. Democrats could ask some tricky questions.

Such as... Was religion one of the reasons listed in the Declaration of Independence to seek freedom?
How many articles are there in the Constitution?
How many electoral votes does your state have?

[Cleita]

21. I thought that's what I said on my post. Yes, my post

was more ambiguous than yours, but I basically meant it as tongue in cheek and I did say words that indicated that I wasn't serious. However, my mother and my husband were immigrants and they had to learn about those things to become American citizens. Both of them were often disgusted with the ignorance of Americans of their own history and government. Of course, my mother with me and my husband with his daughter felt our educational system fell short of making sure that every American child learned those things. This is where we need to begin. We need to teach our children so that they know those things so that they may be responsible voters.

[Lil Missy]

13. I'm thinking literacy tests would work in our favor. n/t

[Mike K]

25. I agree.

Presuming that ethnic discrimination is the reason behind a literacy test to qualify voters is a narrow view. In addition to testing for literacy I believe a test to demonstrate a basic understanding of contemporary political issues should be a requirement for voting.

Why not?

[doc03]

16. Maybe that would be a good idea, we keep getting

Republican administrations.

[Donnachaidh]

17. psst - Tancredo -- got a reality check for ya toots

Most of YOUR base wouldn't pass the literacy test, period. And those bi-lingual folks you detest would probably run rings around the trailer trash you call your *peeps*....

[pepperbear]

20. yeah, cause "Tancredo" is as American as "Smith".

[Berry Cool]

24. Keith Olbermann said Tancredo's grandparents were all immigrants

and this is how he thinks.

Dick.

[Stephanie]

22. Well, it would be to our advantage.

Wouldn't make it right, of course. But once again, the Tea Baggers demonstrate that they are dedicated to backing legislation against their own best interests.

[ChicagoSuz219]

23. You notice he's not advocating for spelling tests... ;-)

[Golden Raisin]

26. This is an over-simplification

but it's basically just more code for there's an n-word in the White House. They just can't stand it and it's killing them. Sooner or later one of them is going to say it out loud (one can only hope there will be a camera crew on site to record it for posterity.) Republicans and Teabaggers do not do well with "the other". Anyone not exactly like them is feared, mistrusted, hated, written off and excommunicated as "not a real American".

[hayu_lol]

27. When candidates decide to run for public office(particularly at...

the state and federal level)they should be required, at the time of registering for their run, to take both a literacy and a civics test--one at least as difficult as what new citizens have to pass in order to become a citizen. NO EXCEPTIONS.

[LeftishBrit]

30. If he genuinely thinks that Obama is a 'socialist ideologue'...

then I doubt that he'd pass a literacy test himself!

Tancredo is disgusting anyway. Reminds me of the British Far Right, e.g. Nick Griffin and the BNP.

[JoeyT]

32. I hate to break it to him

but the immigrants would probably easily surpass him on the civics test.
Which means, by his own admission, that immigrants have more right to vote than he does.

[DailyGrind51]

33. What so "W" can't vote?