Conservatives must stop demonizing the census

by desmoinesdem, Sat Sep 26, 2009 at 10:46:53 AM EDT

The U.S. Constitution requires that the government conduct a census every ten years. Population counts determine federal funding for various programs, as well as the number of Congressional districts allocated to each state, so the public interest in conducting a thorough census is obvious.

The next census will take place in 2010, but some right-wing loudmouths and Republican politicians have unfortunately demonized the effort as an intrusive government plot. Over at Think Progress, Faiz Shakir recaps some of the paranoid chatter from Representative Michele Bachmann (MN-06) and Glenn Beck of Fox News. Shakir also cites radio host Neal Boortz, who told his listeners, "Most of the rest of the [Census] information is designed to help the government steal from you in order to pass off your property to the moochers. They're looters."

Not long ago I discussed my worries about the rhetoric of armed resistance coming from the political right, and I've been reflecting on this problem since I heard about census-taker Bill Sparkman's murder. Sparkman was found naked and bound with "fed" written on his chest and his census ID taped to his neck. In rural Kentucky,

Sparkman's gruesome death has ignited a debate over whether it was a byproduct of harsh anti-government rhetoric on talk shows, blogs and protests. Residents of impoverished Clay County say most people harbor no resentment for agents of the federal government, and they're baffled by Sparkman's apparent killing.
Sheriff Kevin Johnson, a native, said most residents feel a measure of gratitude to the federal government.
"We've been a poverty-stricken area pretty much all our lives," he said. "The government's taking care of 70 percent of people here, through Social Security, SSI, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid."

None of those programs could function without the demographic data the Census Bureau provides.

If conservative politicians and opinion leaders keep stoking fears about the government using census data to steal from or perhaps even round up law-abiding citizens, I am concerned that mentally unstable individuals will commit further acts of violence against census-takers next year. Republicans should condemn the hatemongers and make clear that the census is not only permitted, but required under the Constitution.

Tags: Bill Sparkman, census, conservatism, Crime, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Neal Boortz, Republican Party, Violence (all tags)

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Re: Conservatives must stop demonizing the census

I'm all for under-counting residents of red states, resulting in more seats in the Congress, more electoral college votes, and more money for blue states. Aren't most red states now net receivers of tax dollar now?

by slip kid no more 2009-09-26 12:50PM | 0 recs

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Re: Conservatives must stop demonizing the census

Yes, they are.

by antiHyde 2009-09-26 07:02PM | 0 recs

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Re: Conservatives must stop demonizing the census

It's fine by me if they don't want to be counted. More representation for the sane. Let the Looney Tunes have their crazy world, and the rest of us can live in reality.

by NJDEM1 2009-09-26 04:32PM | 0 recs

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Re: Conservatives must stop demonizing the census

I think we'd be well served in the left blogosphere to keep Sparkman's death free of conjecture until the facts are in; we really don't know what happened or why (one report I heard pointed out that the area in Kentucky where it happened has a large pot field/meth lab problem, and this could easily be a "wrong place, wrong time" event as much as an anti-government issue). It would be no better to demonize conservatives over a tragic murder than it is to have them demonizing the census. What Sparkman's death should remind us of, and should be used to remind conservatives of, is that the
government" we have is not faceless or somehow "other" than the rest of us... it is us, and anti-government rhetoric and incitements to disrespect government work like the census and census takers just hurts other Americans. But until we know more, I think it's not especially responsible to "blame the right" for something we don't yet know. When we do know more... there will be plenty of time to examine what role conservative rhetoric played.

by nycweboy1 2009-09-26 08:25PM | 0 recs

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point taken

but what was done to him is strongly suggestive of a hate crime as opposed to just stumbling onto a meth lab.

by desmoinesdem 2009-09-27 12:19AM | 0 recs

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Re: point taken

I agree that it's "strongly suggestive of a hate crime as opposed to just stumbling onto a meth lab"
... but "strongly suggestive" is a feeling, not a fact. Let's see where further evidence takes us.

by nycweboy1 2009-09-27 05:28AM | 0 recs

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ok, but

as I have written elsewhere, it's not far-fetched to worry about political violence growing out of conservative rhetoric of armed resistance, revolution, and "doing whatever it takes" to stop socialism. I'm not going to stop being concerned about that even if Sparkman's death turns out to be unrelated to his work for the Census Bureau.

by desmoinesdem 2009-09-27 07:37AM | 0 recs

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more evidence on just how tenuous...

is the conservative movement's respect for (and adherence to) our constitution...

by bored now 2009-09-27 05:02AM | 0 recs

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Umm...

Not wanting to appear to defend the Michele Bachmann's of the world, but none of these people -- not even her -- is suggesting that people shouldn't answer the census. So all this talk about conservatives not understanding or not having read the constitution is way off base.

The position they take is that the census should be conducted in order to count the citizens, and then gather no additional information. It is the wide variety of demographic information to which they object, and which Bachmann in particular refuses to answer.

Now, it's a valid question as to whether collecting that information is a good thing or not; as desmoinesdem points out, that extra information is what allows the government to develop programs to help (at least some) of the very people who are unwilling to give that information. But the point is that whether or not it's a good idea, there is no constitutional requirement that the census gather that additional information.

Having opposed the (un)Patriot Act, I can sympathize with the position that the government is collecting too much information. And if the census had been collected in 2005, I'm not sure that I wouldn't have withheld some information; it wouldn't have been a wild leap of imagination to think that Cheney/Bush would have used that information to further an unconstitutional agenda (in fact, it wouldn't surprise me to find out they did just that with the 2000 census data).

Of course, the real issue here is that even if you believe that the census needs to be conducted differently, the demonizing language used by the right has terrible consequences, and that is clear enough, IMO. But let's not make the mistake of misunderstanding their position; instead, let's make cogent arguments against that position.

by fsm 2009-09-27 06:43PM | 0 recs