The price of paranoia
The lies about the Census, and the unhinged who believe the lies
The price of paranoia
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
In the kingdom of ignorance, this story reigns:
Anti-government conservatives - apparently clueless about the history of the country they want to "take back," and willfully believing the Pinocchio whoppers circulated via spam mail, talk radio, and YouTube - are currently engaged in a fascinating form of protest. Millions are refusing to fill out their 2010 Census forms.
The boycott statistics are incomplete at this point, but, to cite just one example, early returns from the most conservative Texas counties indicate that anti-Census paranoia is all the rage on the right. While roughly 52 percent of all Americans thus far have participated - answering all 10 questions - the rate of compliance in those conservative counties is 20 or 30 points lower than the national figure.
The trend is so alarming that one Republican congressman, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, felt compelled yesterday to plead with his right-wing brethren to fill out the forms; as he wrote on redstate.com, the popular conservative site, "If we do not respond, we will not be counted, and if we are not counted, then we effectively will not exist."
Most notably, he urged his readers not to believe "the blatant misinformation" that has been circulated by "otherwise well-meaning conservatives." Which was a polite way of saying, "Don't listen to the liars."
The liars have been marketing ignorance for nearly a year now, painting the Census (or, more specifically, the Obama-era Census) as a manifestation of Big Brother tyranny - and insisting (despite the rigors of factual reality) that most Census questions are "unconstitutional," and that a boycott is legally permissible.
It's hard to know when the bull began, but Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann gets much of the credit. Last June, she claimed (again, contrary to factual reality) that the Census information could be grist for the government to arrest Americans en masse and put them in prison camps; accordingly, she said she intended to answer only one question - how many people in the household? - because, in her fact-challenged view, "the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."
Various talk-radio hosts ran with that one. Glenn Beck said he was considering not filling out his own form. Rose Tennent, on Clear Channel's The War Room, said, "It just scares me to think that these (Census) thugs are getting this information from us." Neal Boortz, on his show, fumed, "It's nobody's business but mine...as to how many flush toilets I have in my house. Nobody's business. And the Census bureau? They just - hey, in my household? Two adults. That's it. You need any more information? Ask my neighbors."
Texas congressman Ron Paul chimed in, complaining about "the invasive nature of the current Census," as evidenced by the government's plans to ask people about their race. He lamented how the government "consistently encourages citizens to think of themselves in terms of groups."
Fast forward to March, 2010. The hottest item among fevered conservatives is a YouTube video - by mid-March, more than 1.6 million viewings - created by a California TV camera operator named Jerry Day. He contends that citizens don't have to respond to Census questions or even talk to Census workers ("you don't even have to open the door for them"). Day's certitudes are seconded by the spam e-mails which insist that, under the Constitution, "they can only ask how many people live in the house...nothing else."
Wow. Where to begin...
Perhaps GOP congressman McHenry, who sits on the House committee that oversees the Census, said it best yesterday, during his bid to knock some sense into the heads of his conservative friends: "Anyone who tells you that this year's census is unconstitutional, and that you are not required to fill out the form completely, is flat out wrong...That argument doesn't stand up to either history or the Constitution's text."
He got that right. The U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 2) requires that Congress oversee the Census "in such Manner as they shall by Law direct," which means that Congress is empowered to decide how the Census is conducted and what questions are asked. Failure to fill out the form, or complete the entire form, is a violation of Title 13, U.S. Code. These are the rules of the road, as repeatedly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, dating back to 1870.
What's most laughable is the delusional claim that the Census can ask only for the number of household members. Apparently there are denizens of the right who think that asking anything else is a new scheme hatched by Obama's socialist cadre. Well, here's a quick cure for the paranoia:
Census-takers were asking questions about people's occupations...in 1820.
Census-takers started asking people about their race...in the first Census, in 1790.
In other words, as McHenry pointed out as well, "Every Census in U.S. history has asked for more information than a simple count," and the race question has been a fixture in every Census since the first.
And as for Boortz' umbrage about being asked to enumerate his "flush toilets," here's some news: the Census has been asking that question, off and on, as a poverty measure, since 1940.
And as for Bachmann's pinwheel-hat assertion that the Census might be used to enumerate Americans for the purpose of shipping them off to internment camps, Title 13 of the U.S. Code bars the use of such information "for any purpose in any action, suit, or other judicial or administrative proceeding."
Nevertheless, the litany of lies has apparently curbed or slowed the compliance among many credulous conservatives, and the thing is, they're only hurting themselves politically.
For instance, if Texas right-wingers persist in being refuseniks, they may well reduce their own power. The state has been tapped to be a big winner in the '10 Census, gaining four new congressional seats thanks to a burgeoning population; but if the Census count is down, the four seats may not materalize, and the predominantly conservative regions would have fewer House members than anticipated.
Apparently, only unhinged conservatives are freaked about filling out the Census; as a new CNN poll reports, 83 percent of Americans don't view the Census as an invasion of privacy. So if the right wants to cut its own clout, no doubt that gesture will be welcomed on the Democratic side.
As McHenry pleaded yesterday, "It would be a tragedy if some of our ill-informed friends handed Democrats a victory at the last minute." But perhaps that's the price to be paid for paranoia.
CD75 : "Funny how Polman is the ONLY meda propagandist 'reporting' this," ..... // on·ly  // without others or anything further; alone; solely; exclusively: // This information is for your eyes only. // - yes, let's get back to reality— still_independent- CD75: and please not that I picked FoxNation and ResDtate.com so as not to be claimed that it was only leftists "rags". Oh and pretty much EVERY daily newspaper in Texas has a story on it at some point over the last.— still_independent
- We ought to be keeping this on the "down low" and let the cons just remove themselves further from relevance by not being counted and hopefully, losing representation. Shhhhh! Also, CD75 - your 2:02 PM posting seems to contradict your 12:53 posting.— jti
- Not surprising, considering that the whole conservative platform is built on lies and failures.— HandNik
- When have conservatives ever let "facts" get in the way of their beliefs?— Ender
- Still Indy: I am sure Olbermann and Maddow will be frothing about it tonight.— CD75
- Still Indy: I think you and Sir Dick should focus on the messiah's mere 44% approval rating in a new CBS poll today (and a liberal poll at that) instead of getting frothy and consumed about a bunch of Texans who nobody else is paying attention to.— CD75
- H-NIK: Everything Obama does is wrong every day. So, why would the census be any different?— Talvenada
- MOCKY: #131 for Bush-Cheney & #9 for Obama is $4.6T BAILOUT KEPT SECRET. It was $700B in congress but $4.6T total.— Talvenada
- On March 30, Sean Hannity referred to the Tea Party movement as "Timothy McVeigh wannabbes".— Rabe56
- US News and World Report: Part of the reason for the slow-motion recovery is the depth and nature of the recession that preceded it. A Federal Reserve study of the past three recessions found that employment, income, spending, stock prices, home values, and wealth all fell much more sharply during the 2007-2009 recession than after the downturns of 2001 or 1991. Loan delinquencies and bankruptcies, correspondingly, rose much faster. That leaves a lot of damage to repair.— Rabe56
- I see from the posts here that the left's ad hominem brigade (represented in fine style by yoda, Cicerowhosehisface, etc.), is a marchin' agin! Will they ever learn that it takes more than name-calling to win a debate? All they succeed in doing is proving the intellectual vacuity of their ideas and policies. An FYI for bag o cheese: the term "mainstream" in reference to the media is obsolete. Use the phrase "leftist media" instead.— George Tomezsko
- Party of Fools.— Djoko Pritza
- George, I'm inclined to resent that...I rarely call anyone names (it's counterproductive), and certainly didn't on this thread. In fact, I was merely acting as a cheerleader for my fine fellow American citizens such as Glenn Beck, and wishing them success in their endeavors.— yoda
- YODA: George is inclined to resent anyone who disagrees with him.— Talvenada
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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