| Honestly, I thought they would toss out this charge last weekend and let it drop. It is so obviously wrong... Clinton has now joined in personally, charging that Iowa college students shouldn't be able to register on campus. They don't live here, they don't pay taxes, they shouldn't be able to vote here. From the Des Moines Register: In a jab at Obama’s efforts to encourage out-of-state students who attend college in Iowa to caucus, Clinton said the caucuses are only for people who live in this state.
“This is a process for Iowans. This needs to be all about Iowa, and people who live here, people who pay taxes here,” she told the Clear Lake crowd.
So now she's claiming that young people shouldn't vote in their campus community, because they don't pay taxes? I wonder how much sales tax the 21,000 out-of-state students statewide contribute to local communities like Ames, Iowa City, and Grinnell. She even manages to cast aspersions that not only are young people carpetbaggers, but they're freeloaders. Students couldn't possibly have, you know, jobs and pay state income taxes, so obviously they shouldn't have the right to vote or join in making decisions that affect their communities.
Did I mention they look like Facebook and wouldn't vote anyway? Mike Connery received this statement from the Clinton campaign: Senator Clinton has been working hard to engage the youth vote across the country and in Iowa. She hopes that all Iowa students who have made Iowa their permanent home participate in the caucus.
Creating confusion about "permanent" residence is a classic tactic, as noted by Rock the Vote, to try to dissuade young people from participating. Students, by virtue of studying and living in Iowa, have every right to caucus. There are no two categories here. Every Iowa student can participate should they choose. Connery writes: The Senator from New York continues to deploy the language of those who would disenfranchise youth by insinuating that many students do not have the right to caucus in Iowa.
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