Tom Tancredo’s muy caliente remarks at the recent National Tea Party Convention, in Nashville, outed MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow as a race-baiting demagogue.

Here’s what the former Colorado congressman said:  “Mostly because, I think, that we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote in this country, people, people who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English, put a committed, socialist ideologue in the White House, name is Barack Hussein Obama.”

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Here’s what Maddow said (after denigrating Tancredo as a “failed presidential candidate” and a “professional anti-immigrant”):

Just for reference here, when Tom Tancredo talks about literacy tests, that`s what they used in the south to keep black people from voting before civil rights legislation and court rulings put a stop to that. So the national tea party convention opened with a clarion call to bring back the literacy tests for voting. And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods.

Please, lady.

Talk about playing to the lowest common denominator. That’s the kind of comment that makes comedian Jon Stewart seem like a Rhodes scholar. Talk about… Oh, wait: . Maddow is a Rhodes scholar, and has a doctorate in political science from Oxford University, but she sure doesn’t listen very well.

Tancredo didn’t say “literacy,” and he wasn’t talking about race.  He said “civics literacy,” which implies a basic understanding of U.S. government and history.  Thanks to multiculturalism and unsecured borders, there are far too many people in this country who don’t speak a word of English and will never bother to do so. Here is one reason why state campaigns to make English the official language of government business are so successful.

Let’s get another thing straight. Tancredo is no “professional anti-immigrant.” For starters, he’s the grandson of Italian immigrants. Buono! When he served in the House of Representatives, he was the founder of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus.  As a congressman, he was an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, as he should have been, given that he pledged to uphold our Constitution and given that the rules of our country frown (at least on paper) on illegal entry.

To many, many Americans, Tom Tancredo is a patriot. Back in the day before it was cool to talk about illegal aliens, he used his congressional bully pulpit, to debate everything from anchor babies to sanctuary cities. Tancredo stood by the families of law enforcement officials who had lost their lives in the line of duty, when they had been murdered by illegal-alien drug dealers; he exposed document fraud, a key reason that the 9-11 terrorists were able to remain illegally in the United States; he noted how our national parks have been trashed – literally – by illegal aliens crossing our southern border and leaving behind piles and piles of garbage; he complained about transnational gang members (who often work as day laborers, as the Center for Immigration Studies has reported), illegals driving on our highways, illegals maxing out social services, and illegals taking jobs from other minorities. In short, he stood up for working Americans and legal residents, of all faiths, colors, and ethnicities, who have been negatively impacted by illegal immigration and the federal government’s manifest unwillingness to do much about it.

Sob stories from the media aside, illegals, even when they come here to find a better life, are thieves, as you would be if you robbed a store or your neighbor to feed or clothe your children or yourself. Those in the media who clamor to give them amnesty are, in essence, promoting anarchy and social unrest advocating for an Americanized version of a banana republic.

Meanwhile, the California-born Maddow has lived a portion of her adulthood in a rural community in western Massachusetts  – very white and very liberal West Cummington. One wonders how much diversity there really is in her life. One wonders if she would ever describe Hillary Clinton as a “failed presidential candidate.”

But one issue is clear: Maddow and the rest of Tancredo’s smug critics in the mainstream media won’t ever use their bully pulpits to have an honest debate about immigration. They are too busy hiding behind the PC “comprehensive immigration reform” mantra and smearing opponents of amnesty as “anti-immgrant” or, worse, “racists.”  ‘Tis a pity because the American way of life stands to be radically changed, for the worse for generations to come, if these interlopers aren’t contained or deported.