1980: Conservative Activist: ‘I Don’t Want Everybody to Vote’

Conservative Christian activist Paul Weyrich, who helped found the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), tells a group of evangelical Christians that he does not want all Americans to vote. “Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome—good government,” Weyrich says. “They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” Weyrich is referring to the power of conservative Christians, a minority voting bloc which generally votes Republican, being diluted at the polls when more Americans vote. [Crooks and Liars, 6/6/2007; Rolling Stone, 8/30/2011]