Author Claims People Who "Burden Society" Should Not Get To Vote

Most conservatives are slightly guarded with their personal beliefs on voting. They hide behind “voter fraud.” They use subtle voter suppression tactics like having less ballots or machines in certain neighborhoods. They tend to pick just the right “targets” to ask to prove they have the right to vote. They suggest paying taxes, owning a home or other qualifiers to limit who should be able to vote.

But it seems the the niceties are over. Now they are starting to just come out and say it.

The poor don’t deserve to vote.

The latest to just give up on the veiled language and simply ask that the right to vote be stripped from the poor? Conservative columnist and author Matthew Vadum. According to Vadum, allowing the poor to vote is like “handing out burglary tools to criminals.”

Via Talking Points Memo, Valdum stated “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….Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn’t about helping the poor. It’s about helping the poor to help themselves to others’ money.”

So, if you are on welfare, if you receive unemployment benefits, if you get disability or food assistance, you no longer get to vote because you would vote for people more likely to continue these programs? Wouldn’t it be just as logical then to strip the vote from owners of corporations who benefit from government deregulation? Or the ultra wealthy who vote in politicians who will provide additional tax breaks, or even better, allow them to stop paying taxes on their stock earnings and other non-wage labor?

When it comes to handing out burglary tools to criminals, it might benefit everyone to take a closer look at who isn’t paying their fair share, first.

Armstrong Williams: “The Wealthy Are A True Minority”

Are The Poor Standing In the Way Of Tax Increases For The Rich?

Read more: economy, poor, voter rights, voter suppression, voting

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Michael M.

8:04PM PDT on Sep 29, 2011

If they take the vote from the poor, the rich, along with their drones , will be slaughtered in droves. And rightly so.

send a green star

Eternal G.

6:23PM PDT on Sep 28, 2011

Define "burden to society"!
If referring to all ecocidal psychopaths, who are blinded by greed and illusionary power and control plus seriously emphatical/intelelectual impaired humans, I agree.

Jamie C.

1:25PM PDT on Sep 23, 2011

Conservatives are the biggest burden on society that there is. They are the ones who should not be allowed to vote.

Urban A.

11:27AM PDT on Sep 21, 2011

"Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn’t about helping the poor. It’s about helping the poor to help themselves to others’ money.” - Excuse me, haven't the corporations and asset strippers put all these people on welfare in the first place? Let them try the 16 tons burden first.

Lika S.

11:57PM PDT on Sep 12, 2011

Fine, then maybe all of us who are on assistance vote on corporations and what they should do and how much profit is allowed, etc. Then they actually might vote for poor people because it's in their own interest, since we vote on their companies rather than for ourselves.

Glenn M.

7:02PM PDT on Sep 10, 2011

The Kiplinger Letter, Vol.88, No.33 for August 19, 2011, a business newsletter, stated that:

* * *
“U.S. multinationals are plowing more profits back into foreign markets, taking advantage of stronger economic growth overseas and saving on U.S. taxes. GE, for example, reinvested $94 billion abroad in 2010 double its 2006 figure. Chip maker Intel poured nearly $12 billion into foreign investments last year... up from just under 5 billion in 2006. All told about 25 % of S&P 500 firms’ profits won’t be repatriated this year. Health care and tech firms tend to reinvest much more.
Total foreign direct investment will hit the prerecession level later this year.
And for China...another record. It’ll nab $106 billion in foreign investment.”
* * *
This is why we are providing tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations so that it can fund the export of more U.S. jobs. That is the Republican plan and the efforts of the “job creators” they speak of. This means that tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations will result in more job losses then are actually created. The Republicans are “job killer” legislators in disguise.

Laure H.

7:00PM PDT on Sep 9, 2011

It seems unfair that someone should earn 18 million dollars, huh.

Maybe it is. But are YOU capable of successfully running a multi-billion dollar company with over 200,000 employees? If you are, apply for the job (or a similar one) and then give the away most of your salary.

Maybe the CEO is worth every penny. Maybe he is "feathering his nest." Either way, that must be a stressful job.

Karen S.

10:46PM PDT on Sep 7, 2011

Valdum has revealed his allegiance to his Fascist beliefs. During Hitler's years in power, he did this same thing: put before the public groups he wanted them to hate, so they wouldn't a word when millions of Jews and others disappeared! It worked, too. So here we have a person (there is room for debate on this issue) here in the US who is publicly speaking Fascist thoughts. This time it is the poor. And gays. And on and on. Right now, while we are more free than we will soon be is the only time to fight back and SAY SOMETHING!!

I sincerely doubt that there is one fascist--er, 'Republican'--in this country who does not have a poor or poorer relative or friend. They won't admit this, of course, but then they lie all the time, as in:"The American People are against the Obama Health Care Plan". Any fool (or poor person) knows that this is NOT true, yet how many Republicans are calling their Senators and Representatives to say, "NO!! This American person WANTS affordable health care!"

Alas, we have missed the point. They--those idiots who say the above, WANT all of us, over age 50?, poor, gay, etc. to DIE very soon, please. As Pogo said once, "We have seen the enemy and he is us"!

Patricia P.

10:12AM PDT on Sep 7, 2011

Linda and Laure, this is how people "achieve wealth" these days - Verizon makes $6 billion in profits and pays its CEO over $18 million, more than it pays in taxes, while insisting that workers take pay and benefit cuts. Most corporations pay little or no federal tax, shifting their share of the tax burden onto the average person.

Patrick F.

9:49AM PDT on Sep 7, 2011

Haha, I don't know about the rest of you, but I certainly was entertained by this levity. Probably not in the same way as Jeffery was though.....and it is nice to see someone actually have something to say other than hit and run comments even if I don't share his point of view.

Deposed? Nah, It's kinda like the story, "The Emperor's new clothes".