One good thing about the GOP going off the deep end is that they are becoming less cautious about revealing their actual policy positions. We’ve always known they hate women, immigrants, blacks, homosexuals and the poor, but they haven’t been so open about it in decades. This lets conservatives pretend they’re not actually voting for bigots, misogynists and people who hate the very idea of democracy.
Thank goodness for politicians like Steve King! Steve King is not afraid to just lay his cards out on the table:
As I roll this thing back and I think of American history, there was a time in American history when you had to be a male property owner in order to vote. The reason for that was, because they wanted the people who voted — that set the public policy, that decided on the taxes and the spending — to have some skin in the game.
All this talk of “voter fraud” is just an excuse to reduce the pool of voters even further. If Rep. King had his way, only landowners would vote. And then it would be White landowners. Then Male, White landowners and, finally, only those that owned enough land.
Rep. King longs for the rule of the Oligarchy where the rich and powerful hold the reins of power and the rest of us are beholden to their largesse.
Rep. King has publicly declared his disgust for American democracy and the GOP’s War on Voting is just an extension of the Right’s disgust for our most basic right: the right to determine our own destiny as a people.
Rep. King does not want “We, the People”, he wants “We, the Wealthy.”
Exercise your right to vote next year and send King and the GOP a message: We will not allow you to steal our rights and our future!
To Don Williams–yes, Steve King stated a single correct fact–that at one time landowners were the only ones allowed to vote. However, his conclusion as to WHY this was the case is less than scholarly, and a rude individual might actually class it as “moronic”.
The reason that only landowners were allowed to vote at first was that they tended to be better educated than non-landowners. The Founding Fathers knew, despite some modern idiots’ opinions to the contrary, that well-educated individuals were needed to keep this country running they way they intended for it to run–and that was NOT with a weak central government, by the way. Anyone who believes that should speak to the individuals who took part in the Whiskey Rebellion. . . Or read a book that wasn’t written by someone intending to rewrite our history for their own narrow purposes.
As it was, that particular aberration–only landowners holding the right to vote–began to be eroded by 1812, and was generally defunct in all the states by 1860. As well, please note that becoming a “landowner” was much easier in those times than it is now–almost anyone who cared to go out into the unsettled areas, build a house, and fence in some property was, by definition, a “landowner”.
However, Mr. Williams, you appear to be missing the point. Mr. Magin hit it on the head–if you’re a renter in Rep. Steve King’s dream world, you can’t vote. Or if you’re a student, or the second or third son in a household, probably a woman (they would most likely be King’s next targets), or simply too poor to purchase a home. What King was dreaming about so longingly was disenfranchising EVERYONE but the very rich, who in a few years in a “Republican”-controlled country would be the only ones who owned anything. Period.
So, Mr. Williams, please take your condescension, your insults, your disingenuous comments, and your obfuscation somewhere– else. I’m sure there are blogs somewhere on the Internet where people gather who would believe you are quite intelligent. Sadly, that place is not here, although if you’d like to stick around and read what honestly concerned, intelligent, and responsible people have to say, you could possibly learn something. While I personally believe that is highly unlikely to occur, I freely admit it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
After all, under the proper circumstances, pigs can fly!
Even if it is mostly straight down.
God help us all.
Henry D. Rinehart
Just one more way the extreme right “Christians” are working to increase the chasm between the haves and the have nots!