Tea Party Nation leader thinks voting is just for property owners

Do you rent or otherwise not own the place in which you live? (With parents, your children, a partner…)

If the leader of the Tea Party Nation had his way, you wouldn’t be allowed to vote. No, seriously. During a conservative radio program a few weeks back, Judson Phillips said that he doesn’t believe people who don’t own homes or land should really be allowed that right, due to a lack of “vested interest in the community.” Quote:

The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But 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.

Of course, the fact that this would disenfranchise a large number of minorities, city-dwelling liberals and generally poor people probably has very little to do with Phillips’ motivation here.

[ThinkProgress via BoingBoing, Image]