Thu, Oct 23, 2008 6:16pm ET
Summary: On his radio show, Michael Savage asked: "Do you think a person on welfare has the right to vote? I don't." He later added: "Why should a welfare recipient have the right to vote? They're only gonna vote themselves a raise."
Savage: "Why should a welfare recipient have the right to vote? They're only gonna vote themselves a raise"
During the October 22 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage asked: "Do you think a person on welfare has the right to vote? I don't. Why should a person who is on public assistance maintain the right to vote? Tell me why. Where is it written that they should have the right to vote?" He added: "I support them, and they should have the same vote I do? That would be like saying an infant has the right to vote or an insane person has the right to vote. Why should a welfare recipient have the right to vote? They're only gonna vote themselves a raise."
Savage continued: "So if you get a demagogue like [Sen. Barack] Obama coming along, and he says to the welfare recipient, elect me, and I'll make sure that we have trickle-up poverty, and the rich -- so-called, that is anyone who works for a living -- will give you more money, more welfare, of course you're gonna vote for the demagogue Obama. See, if I was in charge, I'd pass a law which says, OK, you can't support yourself for whatever reason, you're on welfare, you lose the right to vote."
Later in the broadcast, Savage again asked: "Do you think that people on welfare should lose the right to vote, as I do? Do you believe that that would be a fundament of democracy that if you lose the right -- if you lose the ability to support yourself, for whatever reason, and you seek public assistance, you should, during that period of receiving public assistance, lose the right to vote?" He later stated: "You get back on the self-sufficiency, you get the right to vote. Then we'll have a fair election in America. Otherwise, it's all over. We have a communist nation either now or in the very near future."
As Media Matters for America has documented, on the October 21 broadcast of The War Room with Quinn & Rose, host Jim Quinn, while discussing the history of property rights in the United States, said: "Originally, if you didn't own land, you didn't vote, and there was a good reason for it: because those without property will always vote away the property of other people unto themselves, and that's the beginning of the end." Quinn added: "But, oh no, that was -- that was just too mean-spirited." Additionally, on the October 2 broadcast of his Minneapolis radio show, Chris Baker said, "I don't think homeless people should vote. Frankly, in fact, I have to be very honest. I'm not that excited about women voting, to be honest." Baker later added: "But that's just me. I'm a pig, and that's fine. All right? And we'll see that, I'm sure, on a lame-ass website very soon. But I don't think hobos ought to vote at all. They're nuts. And I think that there needs to be a little more care in who votes."
Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.
From the October 22 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:
SAVAGE: Do you think a person on welfare has the right to vote? I don't. Why should a person who is on public assistance maintain the right to vote? Tell me why. Where is it written that they should have the right to vote? I support them, and they should have the same vote I do? That would be like saying an infant has the right to vote or an insane person has the right to vote. Why should a welfare recipient have the right to vote? They're only gonna vote themselves a raise.
So if you get a demagogue like Obama coming along, and he says to the welfare recipient, elect me, and I'll make sure that we have trickle-up poverty, and the rich -- so-called, that is anyone who works for a living -- will give you more money, more welfare, of course you're gonna vote for the demagogue Obama. See, if I was in charge, I'd pass a law which says, OK, you can't support yourself for whatever reason, you're on welfare, you lose the right to vote. That's all there is to it. You've disenfranchised yourself, either through bad luck or bad behavior, whatever, and you get the right to vote again when you're self-sufficient and you're paying taxes. No taxes, no vote; no taxes, no vote; no taxes, no vote; no taxes, no vote. I have a lot of commonsensical ideas, but you don't hear any -- any of this coming out of the mouths of John McCain, do you? The mouths of John McCain -- I said that pointedly. The mouths of John McCain.
[...]
SAVAGE: Do you think that people on welfare should lose the right to vote, as I do? Do you believe that that would be a fundament of democracy that if you lose the right -- if you lose the ability to support yourself, for whatever reason, and you seek public assistance, you should, during that period of receiving public assistance, lose the right to vote? I think that that's perfectly rational, and the reason is, of course you're gonna go with any demagogue who says he's gonna give you more money.
Of course you're gonna vote to take away things from people who work for a living. And by definition, that's not fair. Fair should be those who work for a living and pay taxes get to vote. I'm not arguing that the more money you have, the more votes you should have. I didn't say that, so don't put words in my mouth. I'm arguing the opposite -- that you lose the right -- the ability to support yourself, you lose the right to vote temporarily. You get back on the self-sufficiency, you get the right to vote. Then we'll have a fair election in America. Otherwise, it's all over. We have a communist nation either now or in the very near future.
—H.D. & N.T.
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