Tancredo’s decrying how the lack of a “civics literacy test” to qualify for the right to vote is responsible for the election of Barack Obama was not simply a swipe at the chief executive of American capitalist rule, but an attack on poor and working people — especially African Americans and Latinos — whether or not they voted for him.

The “literacy test” was a centerpiece of the racist Jim Crow oppression of Black Americans in the southern and western states throughout most of the 20th century.

It was used to systematically exclude all but whites from exercising their right to vote, and much the same argument was used by supporters of Jim Crow to justify the use of such practices as Tancredo used in calling for its return: The alternative is the election of “undesirables” to public office by an even more “undesirable” electorate.

It’s one thing to witness a singular rightwing crackpot advocate bringing back a policy that was outlawed because of its discriminatory character. It’s another thing entirely to witness a room full of hundreds loudly cheer on such a crackpot proposal.

But that is precisely what we saw at the Tea Party Convention: virtually uncritical support and thunderous applause for the restoration of one of the most vile pieces of legislation to emerge in the U.S. since the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The XXIV Amendment explicitly bans poll taxes, but does not mention literacy tests. Perhaps Tancredo and the Nativists believe that “civics literacy tests” could be imposed in states, similar to how same-sex marriage or affirmative action bans have been.

Whatever their plan, it seems clear that at least some of the Nativists will adopt Tancredo’s idea as their own. By doing so, they add one more instance of an explicit attack on working people and their rights to their overall political program.

Communists fight for the expansion and concretizing of democratic rights for working people. This puts us in direct opposition to Tancredo and his Nativists.

It also puts us in direct opposition to the Republicans and Democrats, including Obama’s White House. Both corporatist parties have shown their willingness to appease the Nativists, including adopting and capitulating to their political agenda.

We as working people need to begin to organize a united opposition to the Nativists, to challenge them wherever they appear and to expose their real program.