A representative of the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation said that voting is a “privilege,” and suggested it is not a right. Israel Ortega, who “serves as The Heritage Foundation’s chief spokesman to Spanish-language news media,” told MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry that voters should prove they are “legitimate,” by being forced to present photo ID and other state-licenses in order to be able to vote. Ortega also said, “voter suppression, if it’s real…” suggesting it’s not.
It is rather disgusting that someone who is Hispanic would be working to disenfranchise members of his own community, telling them voting is a “privilege” and they have to prove they’re “legitimate.”
America’s Hispanic and Latino communities are overwhelmingly in supportive of President Obama. Obama has “a 39-point lead over Romney, with 65 percent of Latino voters saying they would reelect the president over 26 percent who prefer Romney,” the Huffington Post reports today. Clearly, Heritage’s goal is to sway Hispanics, and other minorities, from voting.
The Heritage Foundation has been making policy since the Reagan years, and is one of the foremost conservative think tanks in D.C.
In several articles in June, Heritage lauded the now-debunked Regnerus anti-gay parenting “study,” and blasted “liberal intolerance” for attacking it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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