Minnesota Trump sychophant Tom "Brownnose" Emmer.

Republicans are not always stupid. Sometimes they are just deceptive, destructive, mean-spirited and partisan. Their harmful actions make perfect sense if all you care about is power and political advantage. Their politicizing of the census is a case in point.  

Playing political games with the census

“If you are an illegal immigrant, you should not be represented in the U.S. Congress,” says Rep. Tom “Brownnose” Emmer, (R-MN), “The primary purpose of this measure is simple: To protect Americans, and the value of their votes, from being diluted by the staggering number of illegal aliens currently present in the United States."

Emmer was referring to the Republican sponsored “Equal Representation Act.” This solution looking for a problem would exclude non-citizens from the census population count. The bill also requires the Census Bureau to ask several questions about a person’s citizenship status. Every 10 years the population of each state is used to adjust the number representatives each state gets in the House of Representatives (and the number of Electoral College votes). These figures are also used to determine the amount of federal aid states and local governments get from a wide variety of programs.   

Citizenship questions seem reasonable. Why wouldn't we want to have more accurate numbers, including how many are non-citizens? But this is not the Republican goal. They think excluding non-citizens from the population count will lower the number of representatives Democratic states have and thus reduce their power in Congress. Asking people about their immigration status would discourage some people from responding to the census, further lowing the count. The Constitution originally states that all “free persons” (including indentured servants but only 3/5 of slaves) must be counted in the census. The 14th Amendment mandates that apportionment counts be based on “the whole number of persons in each state.”

So excluding non-citizens is clearly unconstitutional and the Supreme Court and the Justice Departments under Republican and Democratic administrations have affirmed that all “persons” must be counted. Republicans are simply maneuvering for political advantage and hyping the fear about immigrants.   

“Diluting your vote” and “replacement theory” demagoguery

“For far too long...the census has diluted the voice of Americans in their own government It has also been exploited by the open borders lobby to take money out of the pockets of hardworking Americans, subsidize the dangerous policies of so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, and finance what has become an unprecedented, slow-burn foreign invasion of our country.”

Rep. Tom “Braindead” Tiffany (R-WI). BTW, there is no "open borders lobby" and the borders are far from "open." This is just more Tiffany inflammatory BS. Tiffany irrationally thinks that counting everyone “dilutes” the value of your vote. This makes no sense. 

One, non-citizens cannot vote and, therefore, cannot reduce the value of anyone else's vote or affect the outcome of any election. Two, by counting non-citizens, states gain more representation not less. Neither can counting immigrants “take money out of the pockets of hardworking Americans” because having a higher population count brings more, not fewer, federal dollars to your state.    

Tiffany's wild ranting about “dangerous sanctuary” cities and “foreign invasions” is just more scare tactics about dark-skinned people “replacing” all us white “real” Americans.  

Republican policies hurt people   

Census results determine how $2.8 trillion a year in federal money is distributed to states and local communities.  Common Cause, a non-partisan advocacy organization, discusses the importance of an  accurate census. They say, “The addition of a question on citizenship to the census would do real harm to a broad swath of rural and urban communities alike across the nation. When our neighbors aren’t represented and included in all counts, entire communities lose out on funding for Medicaid, economic development, childcare, schools, roads and public transit improvements, home heating assistance for senior citizens, and many more vital services.”

Republicans messing with the census will hurt people and communities all over the country. It will hurt their own constituents and supporters. But for Republicans only care about power   and political advantage.