Registering the poor to vote is un-American

I'm not kidding. That's the exact title of this post by right-wing columnist Matthew Vadum, "Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American."

Here's an excerpt:

Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote?

Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Welfare recipients are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery.

Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.  It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country...

You see, poor people tend to vote in their own best interests (not often enough, I'd say - but let's leave that for another time), kind of like how wealthy people vote for politicians who promise to cut their taxes. So maybe Vadun thinks that we shouldn't let the wealthy vote, either?

Yeah, letting the wealthy vote Republican is "like handing out burglary tools to criminals," huh?

Honestly, how far back do these right-wing loons want to take our country? Is there any progress we've made in the past few centuries that these fanatics don't want to eliminate? OK, sure, get rid of Social Security and Medicare. End all government regulation - environmental, health, financial. Break down that wall of separation of church and state. Bring back religious wars.

And now, get rid of that whole democracy thing. How crazy that we should let ordinary people govern themselves! It's only the upper classes who are fit for such things, right?

What's next, slavery? Burning witches at the stake? The divine right of kings?