Donald Trump and Wayne Allen Root (YouTube/screen grab).
Wayne Allyn Root, a Donald Trump admirer who often claims to be in frequent contact with the GOP candidate has led campaign rallies for him in Nevada, said yesterday that people who receive federal benefits such as Medicaid, welfare and food stamps should lose their right to vote, as should women who use “free contraception” under the Affordable Care Act.
Root’s plan would cut a large swath of Americans from the voter rolls: Roughly one in five Americans benefit from means-tested benefit programs, while 67 percent of women with private health insurance use copay-free contraception through the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, is paid for by insurance companies, not by the federal government).
Root told Virginia radio host Rob Schilling yesterday that much of the energy behind Trump’s campaign, as he discusses in his new book “Angry White Male,” is that the country is “evenly divided between the makers and the takers,” so “the middle class is basically paying, paying, paying and the poor get everything free, and it’s a disaster.”
One time, we needed to apply for help, because serious broke, no food, no anything. We sat in an office for over 8 hours only to see someone who wanted us drown in a swamp of red tape, when we explained that a new job was in the works, just needed help for two weeks. Much frowning, sighing, and grumbling. Then a pronouncement: if you have a job, you don’t qualify for aid. “We. have. no. food.” Frowning, sighing grumbling part II. Wanders off to talk to other people. Finally comes back with a “I really shouldn’t do this…” Okay, I can give you two food vouchers. We received paperwork for $80.00 worth of food to cover the two weeks. In return, we had to commit to 80 hours (each) of community service. Anyone who thinks poor people get anything for free needs to be most seriously smacked.
Root said that he had recently seen a map on the internet showing that if only “taxpayers” had been allowed to vote, the 2012 election would have been “a Republican sweep.”
“So if the people who payed the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we’d have landslide victories,” he said, “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?”
Root quickly amended his statement to say that receiving Social Security and Medicare shouldn’t disqualify someone from voting, but “in general most of the things I just rattled off should preclude you from voting.”
We could get landslide victories by denying Christian straight white conservative men from voting, too. Hmmm.
“Social Security should not, Medicare should not, because you paid into the system,” he said. “But all the other stuff, all the other goodies, free Obama phones, free contraception, you know what, you can get them but you shouldn’t be allowed to vote, it’s a conflict of interest. Take that away, we’d win every single election in this country.”
:chokes on tea: Free contraception? On what planet? Here’s a thought – you pick up the tab for 20 years of contraception for 5 women, plus the pink tax they have paid for those 20 years. Then tell me what you think about free contraception.
Via RWW.
First, some history. (Though I must say I dislike the use of the term “poll tax” to describe a system of payments for the right to vote. A poll tax, historically, has meant a tax levied on all those eligible to vote, rather than demand for payment in order to gain that right; which is a purchase, not a tax.)
Second, the obvious: Governing bodies in a democracy enact laws and make policy on behalf—at least in theory—of all the people who will be affected by those laws and policies. A government which only represents whose who can afford to pay for representation is not, by definition, a democracy. It’s a plutocracy.
I can’t get over how alike they look, like a man and his muppet.
Wow, there are a lot of dudes who are willing to say in public that women shouldn’t have the vote. Depressing, what century is this?
Wait, women who pay taxes and insurance premiums are getting ‘free contraception?’ No, there’s just no copay, the way that insurance plans offer many other goods and services with no copays or out of pocket if it makes financial sense to them.
What I really hate are how many of these ‘we hate the takers’ angry white males are themselves takers -- on welfare, some kind of disability for some vague unspecified condition (often brought about through poor lifestyle choices). What they really mean is ‘we want to ban women and non-white people from voting’ but they can’t say that.
I want to work some magic. Tomorrow, everyone to whom this would apply wakes up with a green nose. Maybe it would help a lot of poor white men understand that they’re talking about them. Also applies to men who fuck women who receive co pay free contraception.