Republicans' Census plot

The GOP has found a new way to rig the political system

Corrupting the Census.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Image courtesy iStock)

In 2009, Rep. Michele Bachmann, a far-right member of Congress from Minnesota who a couple of years later would briefly be the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination (seriously, that really happened), announced that she'd refuse to answer most of the questions on her Census form, because you never knew what that dastardly Obama administration might be up to with all that data collection. At the time, she was roundly mocked for her paranoia. The Census? Could you find a more non-partisan government agency? All they want to do is count everybody, just like the Framers mandated in the Constitution.

It took the Trump administration to realize that there are some partisan and ideological possibilities in overseeing the Census, which they are now trying to put into effect. In December, the Justice Department made a request to the Commerce Department (which oversees the Census) that the 2020 installment include a question asking people whether they're U.S. citizens or not. It was not a surprise coming from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for whom opposition to immigration of all sorts has been one of the driving forces of his entire career.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.