The past is now out in the open which is why only a racist, someone who is an idiot, or someone totally clueless about the open past, would want to repeat the mistakes of the past such as literacy tests.
Yes, now just set down the racket, get your towel, and hit the showers. It's really pointless. You have a dude who proudly doesn't believe in evolution, and says the POTUS was elected by "people who could not even spell the word ’vote’ or say it in English" opening the national convention of a movement; that's a fact, and it says a lot. One voice? A fringe? Really? Was the opening speaker not selected by key people? Did he select himself to open the national convention for the entire movement? Did people not cheer for him? They can keep saying "it's just one person" all they want, over and over, for scores of people with ridiculous signs, statements, and even spittle. And then they can put out an airheaded platform, including decrees aiming to repeal things that don't even exist. These facts, too, speak volumes. I actually really like judoka's analogy to anti-globalization protests. Sure, there are some smart and informed people in those protests, but they are dominated by idiots who wouldn't know the global history of trade from a set of baseball cards.
These people are way different than the anti-WTO crowd. That crowd is all kids. Tea Partiers are typically older and well educated. While sometimes it seems like the average Teabagger can barely manage to put down the Big Gulp and get out of their lawn chairs long enough to hold up a sign, this age difference plays big dividends for them in one way: The difference is that Tea Baggers vote. I'd liken them more to the Reform Party, and in fact I suspect that a significant percentage of Tea Baggers were Perot voters in the 1990's. They are going the way of the Reform Party too. Remember that the RP finally died because they couldn't curtail the most extreme and divisive elements in their party, and eventually those people ran the show.
I know that you're right, but I'm just so surprised that someone in this day and age would defend literacy tests as a requirement to vote. Afterall as giddy said, the past is open for all to see. Why make the same mistake, and use the same tool of oppression again. Why advocate that? I guess that suggestion is so far out of the realm of anything a reasonable non-racist would do, I half expect giddy, to at least say that doesn't agree with the literacy test part, and gloss it over. But he didn't. He acted like he thought the idea was OK. I'm just so shocked that someone could do that.
I'm not scared of any email. Lots of things in them are real. To publish them on a message board opens them up for discussion. I never forward them; I open them to the light of day. Think about it: why on Earth would I ever post them on a message board while is in general hostile to their content? If people will discuss the content rather than trade in insults with the messenger, there could be a lot to learn there. I seriously doubt that the whole merit of release would be the quality of the essay. There was not much detail there as I recall. Is it a much truer course for America that a bunch of college kids go register a bunch on non-voters who lack the motivation to do it themselves by bribing them with promises, goods and rides? How outstanding is that? And sometimes, it has been proven, they do it for a bounty. How in God's name is that good for anything?
You are using "literacy test" in a narrow way that DIED MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO. And you want to tell me to forget it because I don't understand it? LOL. Get over your paranoia.
Or the history of trading baseball cards globally. Few people on this board can discuss the tea party movement rationally, so I've avoided reading most of it. With regard to the tea party, I could say, "Gee I love dogs," and somebody would say, "So, that's why you hate cats" or "eating birds -- because dogs hunt birds -- is so vile." Whether one loves or hates the movement, the generalizations just result in urination matches, so it is basically pointless.
Anyone who voted for a bounty and it's been proven has faced the legal consequences of their actions. The same is true of anyone who gave them the bribe. However you mentioned giving rides to people who get registered to vote as a bad thing? Do you honestly think some guy who doesn't want to vote is all of a sudden going to do it for a ride? Worker: Wouldn't you like to have a say in how the government will run? non-voter: No way. They are all the same, and it's a waste of time. I'm going to go play the play station 3. Worker: But there are issues which will affect you and the community at large. Don't you want to tackle those issues which could help with drugs in the community, unemployment, friends and family in the armed services being sent to war...? non-voter: nah... no thanks. Worker: We can provide transportation in an econoline van? non-voter: Oh hell yeah! I'm in. Get me to the fan, and let me buckle that sweet ass seat belt! I get a ride in a van to the polling place! Let's go.
I thought I was the tennis player? Go ahead, quit and take yours ball(s) with you. You guys are so lame. If you can't bully someone into backing down you quit, go home and cast aspersions. To carry on with your tennis analogy, I've volleyed everyone of your passing shots... and I've done it with an Air Guitar. Awesome. You lie. I do believe in the evolutionary process. We may have a disagreement about the beginning, but then I am neither an ardent Creationist nor a Biblical fundamentalist so you can't pigeonhole me there. YOU ARE WRONG. Can I say it again, YOU ARE WRONG. There were some 2000 people at the local Tea Party: no epithets, no spit... I'll leave you to judge about the signs. AGAIN YOU LIE.
You don't get it. I'm asking not to repeat the mistakes of the past, which is what Tancredo was advocating at official Tea Party Rally. Ask Congressman Lewis(the one who worked and marched with MLK Jr. and was called the N. word) if we should just give literacy tests another shot after all the sacrifice he and others went through to rid them from our nation in order to make it greater. The speaker at the Tea Party was advocating using the literacy tests in the exact same way as they were used before. He wasn't advocating some type of new benevolent literacy test. You are making a joke of yourself. Again, go ask the black campaign manager what he thinks of literacy tests, and if anyone who doesn't want to bring them back is just being paranoid. Until you understand what literacy tests are, how they have been used, and lives that were lost so that nobody was required to pass a "literacy test" in order to vote, then you shouldn't really discuss it. You could not be more clueless. You talked about the open past, but fail to understand any reason why we shouldn't repeat the mistakes from then? Should we segregate our schools again? Afterall the racist type of segregating was all done in the past. This would be different. Even if the person who was advocating it was talking about doing it in the exact same way it happened before. Let me know when you find out about the new benevolent literacy tests that are so different from the tool of oppression that was used in the past.
The further and greater point is that, unlike your attempt at characterizing it as such, there is no clear indication that the process is dependent solely on the ability of the prisoner to spell and write. Nice try, though. Every prison has scad of volunteers who will help those prisoners write those letters.
It doesn't matter if most are or aren't. That isn't the point of literacy tests to begin with. When the tea party starts defending literacy tests after the recent history of this country, they deserve to be called all the things they are being called.
You present this as a defense while I see this as a problem. You are pretty much admitting that the Tea Party cannot control the extremists in its ranks which is why the movement does and will continue to have problems. For better or worse the loudest voices will define a movement especially in one as nebulous as the Tea Party.
giddyup says: "That guy must have teased that dog." giddyup says: "Hey, the guy was just washing off the sidewalk."
