Take away the right to vote from millions of Americans because they don’t own property?
Dear Stephen,
Tea Party leaders just aren’t happy with the U.S. Constitution.
First, they declared war on the 14th Amendment, which defined citizens as “persons born or naturalized in the United States,” finally counted African-Americans as whole persons, and established our cherished rights to “due process” and “equal protection.”
Then, they attacked the 17th Amendment, which gave people the power to elect their U.S. Senators instead of letting them be appointed by state legislators in backroom deals.
Now Judson Phillips, President of the Tea Party Nation, wants to take away the right to vote from millions of Americans because they don’t own property. When these radicals say they want their country back, they mean WAY back.
Click here to contribute $10, $25, or more today and help the TNDP to defend our Constitution from these reckless attacks.
Last month on his Internet radio show, Phillips was perfectly clear:
“The Founding Fathers originally … put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote … one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.”
According to Phillips, if you rent your house or apartment, then you simply don’t count and you shouldn’t have the right to vote. More than 300,000 renters in Tennessee would denied their voting rights if Phillips and his Tea Party friends get their way. Americans who lost their homes in foreclosure this year or in bankruptcy brought on by the cost of a serious illness would lose their right to vote, too.
It’s frightening that Phillips is toying with a fundamental principle of our democracy – one person, one vote – but what’s worse is that the radical element he represents is gaining more and more influence in today’s Republican Party.
In a transparent grab for more power, Washington Republicans are sacrificing our economic recovery, help for millions of unemployed Americans, tax relief for the middle class, and even nuclear security with Russia. AND now they’ve embraced Tea Party radicals who want to rip up the Constitution.
I know it sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it’s as real as it is frightening. We can’t afford to sit by and let these anti-democratic views be taken seriously. We need your support!
Let’s protect our Constitution and our right to vote.
Thank you,
Chip Forrester, Chair
The Tennessee Democratic Party