Michele Bachmann warns of "illiterate foreign nationals" voting in 2016

By Laura Clawson, Daily Kos staff

Rep. Michele Bachmann is going a little off the Republican Party's desired message on President Obama's planned action on immigration. The official Republican message is that their anger is about executive overreach, not about scary brown people. Bachmann, though, is definitely focused on the scary brown people:

"The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer -- millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming into the United States who can't speak the English language," Bachmann told reporters at the Capitol. "Even though the president says they won't be able to vote, we all know that many, in all likelihood, will vote."

Bachmann added: "The president has a very single-minded vision. He's looking at new voters for 2016.... People do vote without being a citizen. It's a wink and a nod, we all know it's going to happen."

This is so wrong on so many levels. Set aside the overt racism, it's completely wrong about what Obama is doing. The plan is to allow people who have already been in the United States for years to avoid deportation, not about new arrivals in the country, and as Bachmann admits she knows, non-citizens are not allowed to vote.

But we really shouldn't set aside the overt racism. After all, the entire point here is to scare voters into being afraid of illiterate brown people dragging down the economy and taking over the government. That's pretty damn racist! However, Bachmann was prepared to explain that she had excellent sources for her claims:

"... I spent four days at the border and spoke to American Hispanics on the border. That's what they told me. Those are not Michele Bachmann's words, those words came from Hispanics who live on the border". I'm not using a pejorative term against people who are non-American citizens. I'm only repeating what I heard from Hispanic Americans down at the border. That's what they told me."

Right. I wonder if while she was there at the border, she also ran into any mothers who told her that HPV vaccine causes "mental retardation" or any seven-foot doctor who told her Obamacare requires the IRS to pre-approve medical care.