Tancredo accidentally bars his own followers from voting

The laughable Tea Party convention in Nashville is under way, and right-wing former Rep. Tom Tancredo is already generating the guffaws at his own expense.

During the event's opening speech, Tancredo said that if a civics test was required for voting, President Obama never would have been elected.

Uh, Tom? Do you realize that a civics test would keep Free Republic members, Tea Party cultists, and your own supporters from voting? They obviously don't know shit about civics.

Or maybe they do but just don't care.

I know it would keep Justice Antonin Scalia from voting, because he thinks the "role model effect" should take priority over constitutional law.

I have to admit that few things peeve me more than people who know nothing about civics trying to force me to live by their "mandate." But we all know that has nothing to do with what Tancredo was talking about.

Many states once required a literacy test to vote. This was enforced inconsistently based on the voter's race. Blacks were (in at least one instance) required to read a Chinese-language newspaper, while the test was often waived for whites. Tancredo longs for the days of racist poll practices, but he didn't mention race directly.

Still, the Tea Party crowd knew what he meant. Wink wink, nod nod. After the racism that's defined the various displays of Lipton Lugnuttery all over the country, I think that's clear.