The Trump presidency has driven many leftists to expose their true beliefs — radical, loony, or both.
Cathy Areu was quite a bit of both in her appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show Thursday evening, as she advocated non-citizen voting, "contributing" foreigners and foreign diplomats voting, and even cross-U.S. state voting.
It would be tempting to dismiss Areu as so incoherently far out on the leftist fringe that no one really pays any attention to her. That would be a mistake.
Areu "is CATALINA magazine's founding publisher, a long-time Washington Post Magazine contributing editor, and the author of Latino Wisdom," a self-help and inspiration book. She appears to have leveraged that positive veneer to book appearances on Fox News, CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and CNBC.
Areu has gained previous infamy at NewsBusters for comparing 2008 GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to "Larry the Cable Guy -- Minus the Class and Intelligence," and for seemingly being pleased that it's a "Tough Time to Be a White Man in America Where the Minorities Are Really Taking Over."
She currently calls herself a "Journalist (as seen on Fox News)" at her Twitter bio, and tweeted that she looked forward to talking about "undocumented people voting" with Carlson early Thursday evening.
Carlson began his related segment by reviewing the Democratic Party's illegal-immigration policy move from Bill Clinton's state pro-deportation posture to "block(ing) deportation for certain favored immigrant groups" during Barack Obama's presidency to today's position, apparently held by a sizable minority of leftists, that not only should no illegal immigrants be deported (even criminals), but they should also be allowed to vote.
Concerning non-citizen voting, Carlson then replayed portions of previous interviews with Cesar Vargas, New York's first undocumented attorney, a staunch advocate who shouted "No taxation without representation!" to defend his position, and Jennifer Palmieri, who wouldn't rule the idea out "if Congress never does anything to address immigration."
During Carlson's interview with Areu (video and transcript are at the end of this post; HT to a longtime tipster), he fed his guest progressively more ridiculous scenarios, and asked if people in the circumstances described should be allowed to vote. To Carlson's ever-increasing amazement, Areu was okay with every single one, and never lost her sunny but calculated disposition.
To summarize the interview, Areu is okay with:
- Immigrants, legal and illegal, being allowed to vote.
- Foreigners briefly visiting the country being allowed to vote.
- Residents of one state being allowed to vote in another state if that's where they "happen to be."
- Foreign diplomats, even Russian diplomats, being allowed to vote, as long as they "contribute and are great people."
Areu graduated from Florida State University in 1992. Carlson exposed this mid- to late-40s "journalist" who has somehow earned the respect of many on the left (and at Fox, of all places) as someone who clearly hasn't even begun to think through the implications of her beliefs — and appears to be not the least bit bothered by it.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Transcript (beginning at 0:07):
TUCKER CARLSON: So Cathy, you think that people who are not citizens of the United States ought to be allowed to vote in federal elections. Correct?
CATHY AREU: I feel that people who are contributing and are humans and are in our society and contributing to our society should have a say, yes, in what happens in our democracy. Yes.
CARLSON: How would we measure that? So would we say that everyone who's making a net contribution, paying more in taxes than they are getting in services, for example, those people can vote? People who own property can vote?
AREU: Well at the moment, I mean, we have so many people that are living in this country. We have about 11-12 million people that are living in this country, contributing to our society, paying their taxes, as previous guests have said — taxation without representation. So there's so many people who are living here that don't have a voice. So it's been shown that when they do have a voice, they do feel more empowered, and they are part of our society. So people who —
CARLSON: Well they definitely would feel more empowered by voting. There's no doubt. I mean you're absolutely right on that. They would definitely be empowered. But I'm just wondering what the standard is. So could I be on vacation here from another country, and, you know, stay for a while, contribute greatly. How long would I have to stay in order to be able to vote?
AREU: Well I mean, I think it goes state-by-state. I think Maryland right now has a few cities that allows (sic) undocumented people to vote. So I would wonder how Maryland is doing it. And that's not California, that's Maryland. So I would think maybe adopt what Maryland's doing in other states.
CARLSON: But that raises a question. So if foreigners should be allowed to vote in our elections, why should residence of Mississippi be allowed to vote in California elections?
AREU: Exactly! We should! I mean the United States is the United States. So yeah, if I'm a Floridian and I'm visiting New York, so why can't I vote in New York? Absolutely I think we should be able to vote wherever we happen to be. Yeah.
CARLSON: Wow. Should we be able to vote in Mexico?
AREU: Well, if we're contributing to their society and living there for years, and perhaps if there's a law that allows us to, absolutely. But the American Way was established with people voting in the 1700s that were undocumented. So we actually were created as a nation of people that were undocumented and voting. So it is the American Way.
CARLSON: Oh yeah, there's, a nation of illegals for sure. But let's just get back to Mexico. So their Constitution says —
AREU: Undocumented.
CARLSON: Yeah. Illegal, undocumented, that's kind of a hybrid of the two. But their constitution says that foreigners are not allowed to participate in any way in their politics. Isn't that racist?
AREU: Well, I mean, but America is not racist. That's what makes America so beautiful. America is a melting pot. So that would only make sense that we would allow people who are contributing to our society to vote. So that would make sense. But we are a wonderful nation —
CARLSON: Okay, so then why are we, why are we upset about Russian influence in our elections then? Isn't that kind of what we want? I mean, there're a lot of Russians living here, diplomats living here, long-term living here. (Sergey) Kislyak, The longtime ambassador here —
AREU: I don't think the Russian collusion was people contributing and then going to the polls and carrying out their (unintelligible) system. I don't think that —
CARLSON: Whoa, no no no, hold on, wai-wait a minute. Why should we, I'm confused. Why should we be worried about foreigners influencing our election on the one hand if you're calling for foreigners to influence our election on the other?
AREU: Well, these aren't foreigners. These are people who are living here, working here. Their children are in our schools. They're going to our hospitals. In places where now Trump has ICE visiting, to take out people who are undocumented. I mean —
CARLSON: Well, wai-wai-wait a sec. I'm, I'm trying to track this because I want to take it seriously, and I do think this is the next frontier in liberalism. I think the Democratic platform will reflect what you're saying, probably very soon. But in —
AREU: The next frontier in America, you mean the future. The future, yes. The bright future.
CARLSON: But Ambassador Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, spent I think like 20 years here. I think his kids grow up here. Certainly a big contributor economically to the city of Washington.
AREU: Yes.
CARLSON: Why should I be upset when he votes, or influences our politics?
AREU: Well, there's so many people that we are sad that vote, right? But unfortunately, we don't have people voting who should be voting. I think we only have about 59% turnout, voting right now? So people who do contribute and are great people, and contributing, should be allowed to vote. So if you get more good guys voting, it would cancel out —
CARLSON: Okay so that would include, good. Well I'm glad we can give up on the Russian collusion narrative. It was dumb for the beginning, and now I feel good about it. Because, you know what? They're just transitory Americans, undocumented Americans, which I love.
AREU: No, no, no.
CARLSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good to see you, Cathy. Thank you.
