What Happened To "If You Don't Have Anything To Hide"?

Michelle Bachman:

The mother lode of all data information will be from the Census. … Unfortunately, the Census data has become very intricate, very personal, a lot of the questions that are asked. I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that

It is also a good thing that the Constitution doesn't have any requirements barring stupidity in Representatives. Yes, this is the newest of the Right's stupid attacks. The Constitution does have some requirements that this bunch ignored, right there in the Bill of Rights and in the clause regarding Habeas Corpus. But consistency and sensibility are not only not requirements for membership in that group, they appear to be bars. There is some form of consistency, it is "Ooooh, I'm soooo scared and you should be, too."

To call fear mongering a symptom of the Right would be a bit of minimization, it is more a feature of the Right. To call it a symptom you'd have to assume that there was a mental deficiency involved with people like Bachman and that would mean that over 20% of the population is mentally ill. I'd rather not believe that. I'd much rather believe that they are desperate to have their way - the alternative is too scary. It is scary enough to reflect that they'd deliberately behave this stupidly.