Posted on April 13, 2009

State Democrats Despoil Democracy

Michael Graham, Boston Herald, April 7, 2009

The election of President Barack Obama was supposed to usher in a post-racial and post-partisan America. But who knew that some Massachusetts Democrats dreamed of a post-American America?

Rep. Pam Richardson of Framingham wants the Massachusetts Democratic Party to advocate voting rights for illegal aliens.

You read that right. A handful of liberal Massachusetts towns already allow legal resident aliens to vote in local elections. But Richardson wants illegal immigrants canceling out your vote for school committee and town selectman.

And she wants the state Democratic Party to lead the way.

Last month, at a local party platform meeting in Framingham, Richardson looked into a video camera and bemoaned the unfairness of the crimmigrants’ plight:

“We have a large population of people living here who don’t have the same rights and opportunities of the rest of us,” she complained. “I’m talking about undocumented immigrants.”

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The idea of extending the right to vote to non-citizens is disconcerting enough. But to make legal voters from criminal aliens is beyond belief for the typical American.

The question is, does the idea offend the Massachusetts Democratic Party?

Richardson says it’s the Democrats’ job to be the “voice of the voiceless” in this case. Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland) has already proposed legislation for one of her kooky ideas–driver’s licenses for illegals.

And so now it’s up to the state party to decide if they agree with the idea that American citizenship should be irrelevant in Massachusetts politics. It may sound crazy to you, but at the platform meeting in Framingham, Richardson received a rousing ovation.

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But think for a moment of that blue-collar worker who has lost his construction job to illegal immigration; whose property taxes rise to provide services for those working off the tax rolls; and who then finds himself standing in line behind an undocumented-but-legally-registered voter casting ballots on a tax override.

He votes no. The illegal immigrant votes yes. The override passes, and he’s told to accept the results because “the people have spoken.”

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