The Common Clay of the USA
Well I’m back! I’ve neglected this blog for far too long, but something called “Life” got in the way. Anyway, this week there’s no shortage of material. I’ve decided that for now I’ll start with some comments made at the recent Tea Party Convention.
Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Whackjob) gave Thursday Night’s opening remarks. This is a man so unimportant that this blogger can’t remember if he did a project on him during the 2008 Primary Election campaign, and as Jon Stewart mentioned was dressed in period costume as Carl Sagan circa 1979. Apparently, he is the modern incarnation of the White Supremacist. After hearing his remarks at the Convention I am waiting for him to announce his candidacy for Grand Imperial Dragon. Much as I admire Carl Sagan and am shocked at how much Tancredo resembles him, he seemed mostly like a grumpy old man yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. To qoute directly his words were:
And then, something really odd happened, mostly because I think that we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country. People who could not even spell the word “vote,” or say it in English, put a committed socialist idealogue in the White House, name is Barack Hussein Obama.
Apparently we should have a civics literacy test in this country to ensure people are smart enough to vote. I have a better idea, let’s force all voters to pay a tax to vote! Since they’re going to the “polls” I guess we could call it a “poll tax?” It could also help us cut down on illegal immigration because if someone isn’t registered to pay the tax they are probably here illegally. Or better yet, we could enact some sort of law where you can only vote if a past generation voted… now we don’t want to make it too easy, maybe we can arrange it so you can only vote if you’re grandfather voted? Yes! That’s it! And we could call it, Oh I don’t know.. maybe some sort of “Grandfather Clause?”
Well I have news for you, this has all been tried before. Perhaps you’ve heard of the term “Jim Crow?” No I am not refering to the name of you’re neighbor when you were growing up. “Jim Crow” is the term for a series of post-Emancipation, post 14th/15th Amendmant laws from the Deep South. The 15th Amendment made it illegal to deny the right to vote “on condition of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” lucky for them tho, the legislators of the Deep South found ways around that with the above laws.
If we are not careful we will find ourselves regressing to the very state we’ve been struggling to escape for the past 145 years. What happened to “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearing to breathe free…”? We are a nation made of immigrants, there are only a comparative handful of true Native Americans and 99% of us are not them. We would not be “Americans” if not for the strong immigrant tradition.
It should also be noted that the very immigrants they are campaigning against are required to take an American civics test be fore becoming legal citizens. Our own citizens face no such requirements. If my High School is any indication (and it is a fairly average High School), a basic government course isn’t even required for those born in the USA. You want to ensure an educated electorate? Do something useful with No Child Left Behind and bring back a required Government and Civics course.
The Tea Party movement, and the racist hacks who swell it’s ranks are an embarrasment to the country. I close with one of my favorite lines from the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, “You’ve got to remember that these are people of the land, the common clay of the new West. You know… Morons.”
