Rock star and noted conspiracy theorist Ted Nugent says people who are welfare should give up their right to vote?

Rock star and noted conspiracy theorist Ted Nugent (pictured) predicated that if President Barack Obama won re-election, he would either be dead or in jail. Thus far, he’s not asking anyone to see him at the crossroads. Instead, he’s continued to do what he’s always done: Offer grossly inaccurate assessments of political issues of the day that are equally drenched in idiocy and racism.

Unfortunately, a publication has now given him a forum that encourages him to continue spreading his special brand of lunacy. In a new op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent shares his thoughts on the much-over-hyped “fiscal cliff.” I guess it is somewhat fitting that he begins his diatribe with a monster reference.

Nugent writes:

Only a Fedzillacrat could possibly think raising taxes on the wealthy could accomplish anything toward restoring sanity in the financial insane asylum known as our federal government.

Are you scared yet or should he have added “boogey, boogey, boo” at the end for effect?

Nugent goes on to echo longstanding conservative talking points about big government and wasteful spending, i.e. helping old people afford electricity and IHOP specials is socialism, blah, blah, blah.

What’s really striking, though, is his declaration that our most-vulnerable Americans don’t deserve our democracy’s fundamental right.

He asserts:

Let’s also stop the insanity by suspending the right to vote of any American who is on welfare. Once they get off welfare and are self-sustaining, they get their right to vote restored. No American on welfare should have the right to vote for tax increases on those Americans who are working and paying taxes to support them. That’s insane.

In addition to suspending a welfare recipient’s right to vote, we also need to get our voting system straightened out and eliminate voter fraud. We need to ensure that only Americans vote by requiring polling places to validate the identification of each voter.

Call it a hunch, but I’m betting a man who has dismissed President Obama as a “criminal,” fancies himself a “Black Jew at a Nazi-Klan Rally” when refuting attacks, bashes immigrants, and maintainsthat the South should’ve won the Civil War probably harbors a particular view about those on welfare.

Before I even get into Nugent’s pathetic vilification of the poor, let’s address his push for “voter fraud.”A new poll has revealed that almost half of Republicans believe that ACORN helped Obama “steal” the election. Not only does ACORN not exist anymore, but neither does this widespread voter fraud that Republicans (who actually participate in voter suppression, which is a form of fraud in of itself) continue to speak of.

As for those getting government aid to forfeit their right to vote, if this isn’t a sign to stop allowing fringe theater to get in the way of real political debate, I don’t know what is.

It’s annoying to even have to state the obvious, but since this is a fallacy that won’t go away, let it be known that poor people do pay taxes. Recent statistics that claimed 46 percent of Americans won’t owe federal income tax have been conveniently twisted to suit a disingenuous argument about the poor.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

These figures cover only the federal income tax and ignore the substantial amounts of other federal taxes — especially the payroll tax — that many of these households pay.

Most of the people who pay neither federal income tax nor payroll taxes are low-income people who are elderly, unable to work due to a serious disability, or students, most of whom subsequently become taxpayers.

Moreover, low-income households as a group do, in fact, pay federal taxes. Moreover, even these figures greatly understate low-income households’ total tax burden because these households also pay substantial state and local taxes.

When all federal, state, and local taxes are taken into account, the bottom fifth of households pay about 16 percent of their incomes in taxes, on average.  The second-poorest fifth pays about 21 percent.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax records showed he paid a rate less than 14 percent.

Snatch Ted Nugent’s mic away already.

He is as qualified to dispense political commentary as “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”‘s Miss Lawrence is to be a gynecologist: it’s the deaf and dense leading the blind.

I understand why the Washington Times might’ve chosen to run his op-ed: Times are hard and every media outlet needs its hits to survive. Still, when are foolish folks, such as Ted Nugent and several other like-minded half-a**ed political commentators, going to be told that they have no idea what they’re talking about?

Will it ever end?