The Republican Fake Census

I’ve obviously been remiss in getting this project off the ground. My apologies. It’s certainly not for lack of content! It’s basically been lack of time, but who wants to hear excuses?  As I continue to build this up, it’s important to keep in mind that the focus of this idea is not the egregiousness of any one particular email (although that will certainly be explored), but rather the cumulative effect of the daily bombardment this has on the general population.

Now that I’ve set that up, I immediately depart from the concept (hey, it happens sometimes) to bring you an actual printed piece of propaganda: one of many versions of a fake censusy-looking document the national Republican Party has been mailing over the last several months. Any Maddow watchers out there have already followed the arc of this story:  Republicans (both the RNC and the NRCC) mail deceptive anti-Obama censuslike letters out to the general population, Congress passes law specifically to prevent these letters from being mailed, Republicans ignore law and send out letters anyway.

The problem is not that anyone who reads one of these is going to confuse it with an actual census form sent out by the US Government.  The problem is that A) this is likely to reduce participation in the Census (people ignore and trash the actual census letters), thereby costing us more taxpayer money in follow up mailers and personal visits (hence the law), and B) it gets Republican misinformation in front of the eyes of people who would not normally read it.

Note the questions, and the way they imply that the Democratic party advocates total amnesty for all illegal immigrants, giving immigrants retroactive and unlimited welfare benefits, eliminating all performance standards for teachers, raising the average person’s taxes, a government takeover of healthcare, and a bunch of other BS they do not advocate.  It’s a nice mixture of race baiting, government hatred, and direct appeals to selfishness.  Par for the course with the Republican Party.

To my knowledge these documents are still being sent out despite the law (as the strict constructionist types at the RNC have found loopholes in the law that was specifically written to stop them).  This is one of the mailers received by a non-Republican in the Atlanta area: