Right wing activist Wayne Allen Root, a man who has offered to be Donald Trump’s “Karl Rove” if he is elected president, had some very interesting things to say to radio host Rob Schilling this week. He wants to take away the voting rights of the poor.
Right Wing Could “Win Every Election”
Root appeared in the August 29 edition of WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss his new book, entitled “Angry White Male: How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America—and What We Can All Do to Save the Middle Class.” Root was also the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate in 2008 and the emcee for a Trump rally in Nevada last December.
On Schilling’s radio program, Root said,
“… if the people who paid the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we’d have landslide victories, but you’re allowing people to vote. This explains everything! People with conflict of interest shouldn’t be allowed to vote. If you collect welfare, you have no right to vote. The day you get off welfare, you get your voting rights back. The reality is, why are you allowed to have this conflict of interest that you vote for the politician who wants to keep your welfare checks coming and your food stamps and your aid to dependent children and your free health care and your Medicaid, your Medicare and your Social Security and everything else?”
Probably realizing that the “Medicare and Social Security” part of that would piss off a lot of the Trump supporters who fall into that demographic, Root backpedaled quickly and said that those programs shouldn’t count, but that,
“… most of the things I just rattled off should preclude you from voting.”
Root went on to talk about things like “Obama phones” and “free birth control” as other conditions that should keep people from having a vote. Because then the Republicans win!
Damn That Pesky Constitution!
Of course, as disgusting and vile as this idea is, Root is forgetting about that little thing called the Constitution. You know, that document that the right wing says they love so much?
There are amendments that guarantee the right to vote. The fourteenth amendment guarantees it for everyone over the age of 21 (modified by the twenty-sixth amendment to make it age 18). The nineteenth amendment guarantees it for everyone regardless of sex. The fifteenth amendment guarantees it for everyone regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
But let’s talk about the twenty-fourth amendment.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”
It’s RIGHT THERE. In black and white. Not to mention the fact that government is supposed to be for ALL the people. Not to mention the fact that poor people DO pay other taxes, even the folks that wind up not paying any income tax.
For someone who was A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (though, granted, not one that was ever going to win), it’s frightening that Wayne Root thinks repealing voting rights of the poor is a good idea.
Of course, it echoes Paul Weyrich – one of the founders of The Heritage Foundation and ALEC, among other right wing think tanks. Weyrich famously said,
“I don’t want everybody to vote.”
Weyrich might be dead, but his ideas live on.
Featured Image via YouTube screengrab.
