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Colorado's own Tom Tancredo has been roundly criticized for a speech he gave to the National Tea Party convention in Nashville a few days ago.
Tancredo represented our 6th Congressional Distinct from 1999 to 2009. He also sought the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2008.
In his Nashville speech, Tancredo complained that "people who could not even spell the word 'vote,' or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama."
One reason this happened, he said, is that "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country,"
In principle, such a test sounds like a good idea. I can't be the only one who wonders why people who don't know a school section from a school board should be allowed to vote.
But in practice, voter tests acquired a sordid reputation that is well deserved. In the South 50 years ago, Cousin Beauregard, who had trouble counting past 10 without taking off his shoes, got a question like "Was General Sherman the most evil man who ever lived?". But a black resident who wanted to vote had to provide detailed analysis of long sections of the state constitution.
Let us assume, though, that it is possible to apply Tancredo's "civics, literacy test" in a fair way, perhaps with questions like these:
1. The phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" appears in:
A) The preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
B) The Bill of Rights.
C) Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
D) None of the abve.
2. The 5th Amendment says, in part, that "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." What does "person" mean here?
A) A fertilized human ovum.
B) Anyone not suspected of violating a provision of the Patriot Act.
C) Anyone not charged with a drug offense.
D) A living, breathing human being.
3. Who wrote that "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion"?
A) Keith Olbermann.
B) Madilyn Murray O'Hair.
C) Thomas Paine.
D) None of the abve.
4. Who wrote that "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches"?
A) Karl Marx.
B) Eugene V. Debs.
C) Robert Ingersoll.
D) None of the abve.
5. Article XI, Section 2 of the Colorado Constitution states that "Neither the state, nor any county, city, town, township, or school district shall make any donation or grant to, or in aid of, or become a subscriber to, or shareholder in any corporation ..." This means
A) The state and its political subdivisions are not allowed to subsidize private companies.
B) Other states offer "incentives" so we get to, too, no matter what this says.
C) There's a way to sneak around this by using tax exemptions and utility abatements.
ANSWERS:
1. D. It's in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.
2. The petitioners are at it again to make A the answer, at least in Colorado. In the real world, D is usually the answer.
3. D. John Adams, second president of the United States, signed a treaty with these words.
4. D. It's from Benjamin Franklin.
5. A is right, but B and C are correct.
And as you can see from some of these questions, a test wouldn't do much to improve the electorate. That's because we'd just argue about the answers.
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