A Houston Tea Party group that made wild charges about “voter fraud” in Harris County last year apparently thinks folks should learn more about the ideas of a far-right extremist who believes that registering poor people to vote is un-American. We wonder whether Plano-based Liberty Institute, the Texas affiliate of Focus on the Family that defended the King Street Patrtiots’ controversial “anti-fraud” campaign, will leap to the group’s defense again.
Talking Points Memo reports that King Street Patriots invited Matthew Vadum, author of Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, to speak at a lunch in Houston today. Vadum, TPM writes, thinks that registering poor people to vote is un-American and “like handing out burglary tools to criminals.” Moreover, he says, helping poor people vote “could lead to the destruction of the republic.”
Liberty Institute, which supported the State Board of Education’s politicization of new social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools last year, associates with really fine people, yes?
That’the right wing of this country, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
One only has to look at the Brown Shirts in 1933 Germany to see the reemergence of them in the form of the Tea Party. Even the blind followers of The Tea Party Movement do not realize that money is pouring in someplace to fund all of their activities. It’s coming in from Freedom Watch and Americans for Prosperity, both funded by the Koch Brothers, Be afraid, be very afraid.
There have been repeated issues of fraud in the Houuston races through the years which was highlighted by the Talmadge Heflin race when he lost his return to the Texas House. Its not about the poor people that you are talking about, its about the underhanded methods used by groups like Acorn to illegally register people to vote and then in some cases, pay them to vote a certain way. And isn’t it ironic that Acorn picks the poor to target for their proven illegal activities? Thats akin to racism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John, the bottom line: Vadum is extremely hateful in his rants against the poor. You should be embarrassed to defend him. But considering your previous comments here, it doesn’t surprise me.
The politics involved are described in livid numbers in the new book “the Dictators Handbook, why bad behavior is almost always good politics” just released, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith. This outlines the basic dynamics in human politics, regardless of the sancity or curse of the cause, that points out that the smaller the percentage of participants in the political process, the more certain that corruption will dominate.
Regardless of side in a more democratic polity, the propensity of the winner to spread public largesse for private gain for the members of the in-group. Welfare for the poor, or tax breaks for the rich, same dynamic.
1. ACORN used third-parties to register people to vote. When they found out there was fraud, they turned those third parties to prosecutors. They policed themselves. They did what conservatives are always telling us Wall Street will do, but Wall Street never does. And God’s Oil Pedophiles punished ACORN for being honest.
2. If conservatives are so concerned about voter registration fraud, why don’t they register these people properly themselves?
There seems to be a hatred of poor people amongst conservatives. Conservatives keep going on about self-reliance, but they seem to have no interest in teaching people how to be self-reliant.
Of course, if there was no one to hate or complain about, a lot of conservatives would have nothing to do.
conservatives are the underbelly of mole rats. or is that a diss to mole rats?
Nothing of illegal activity you charge John was proven, even Bush’s AGs could not find illegal activity happen the only people paid were the investigators trying to prove illegal activity and they could not. There is absolutely such a small percent of actual fraudulent voting that’s it’s statistical a nonevent. Stop drinking the coolaid from fox and the propaganda machine. Acorn did a lot of good and representing a basically unrepresented population is not racist it’s necessary. The poor, the elderly, the disabled, children are not a race but a class of people the Rs are trying to rid themselves of.
Looks like the Liberty Institute should consider a name change…
Many conservatives believe that the Founders were right to restrict the franchise to only land-owning white males. And given who those conservatives are, that is really no surprise, is it? So Matt Vadum is just being honest about being a TRUE Constitutional originalist.
It is apparent that the right considers democracy to be a very annoying inconvenience in their drive to Fascism. Oh, they’ll play along as long as they have to but as soon as they get a chance, America as they Great Experiment will be done.
Investigation into voter fraud (during the Bush years, so you know they were motivated) resulted in, out of 160 million votes cast, eighty-four convictions. Most of them were like the ex-con who was so unaware that he wasn’t allowed to register that he handed them his prison ID.
This percentage is roughly akin to being worried that you will be hit by a piece of falling satelite WHILE you’re being struck by lightning.
Let it go, John.
You are lowering mole rats to their level. I would liken them, these so called conservatives, to viruses.
I have no idea why the Republicans would be so concerned about poor people voting. Most poor people do not vote. Well of people like me vote. I voted for the digger in 2008. I plan to vote for the digger again in 2012—and do one thing I did not do back then—bring other well off people to the polling place with me.
If a radical regressive like Bachmann or Gingrich gets elected, I plan to hit the communications waves running first thing the morning after the inauguration. McConnell’s plan to make the digger a one-term President was setting his sights way too low. I am going to be working hard, talking hard, and writing hard nationwide to achieve a Presidential resignation from office or this country’s first ever conviction of a President in an impeachment trial. Normally, I would be willing to give the new President a decent chance. However, truth of the matter is, they gave my digger friend no chance whatsoever from Day 1—every last racist bast&%d one of them. More than one person can play that game, and some of us out can play it a whole lot better than the far right extremist racists did—read that as every card-carrying member of the Republican Party since they kicked out all of the decent Eisenhower Republicans—people i could have actually voted for at one time.
Charles, I’m trying to figure out what a “digger” is.
Yeah. Me too ;>)