<The conservative hatred of a democratic guvmint in practice means hatred of opposing beliefs and values, and the people who hold them. By restricting government and its resources, conservatives hope to prevent the government from doing the bidding of the "wrong" people. I've yet to meet a conservative who wasn't distinctly uncomfortable with this democracy thing, 'cause darn it, "those people" are always abusing their right to vote by voting the wrong way.

Reading past what Buck calls "annoying rhetoric," you are more or less right. The conservative fear of an all-powerful government, directed by a pure democracy, and no longer restrained by a Constitution, may be reflected in a desire to be sure voters at least have the intelligence of a boiled clam. Because of the liberal goal of "universal suffrage," we have a large pool of voters that, to put it mildly, are not exactly "informed." Add to this the fact that we have developed an entrenched system in this country where one part of the population (and not just the poor) can vote wealth away from the other part (and not just the rich). Democrats, cheered as generous and caring, are urging this process forward, while Republicans, whiplashed by scorn, are trying to put on the brakes. We have not yet seen the full impact of this.

An aside:

The little dig at the end about "those people" is an obvious attempt to paint conservatives as bone-deep racists.

This is starting to chap my ass a bit. How did the Democrats suddenly become the Party of Black America, while the Republicans suddenly get white hoods dropped on their heads?

Back in the fifties and sixties, when someone was passing a Jim Crow law in the South, he was a Democrat. When someone stood in a schoolhouse door to keep blacks out, he was a Democrat. When someone was setting up rules to keep blacks from voting, he was a Democrat. And when someone was pulling a rope over a tree branch with some struggling victim on the other end, you can be damn sure he voted Democrat in the last election. Was Wallace a Republican? Was Lester Maddox? Were the guys who actually DID have white hoods on their head Democrats or Republicans?

How about civil rights legislation? If you were to take a survey of the average citizen of any color today, he would probably tell you that civil rights legislation was passed over the cold, dead bodies of the Republicans in the Congress.

The Congressional Quarterly reported that, in the House, 61% of Democrats (152 to 96) voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as opposed
to 80% of Republicans (138 to 34). In the Senate, 69% of Democrats (46 to 27) voted for passage along with 82% of Republicans (27 to 6). Al Gore Sr. not only voted against it, but participated in a filibuster to kill it.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 received 82% Republican support in the House of Representatives and 94% in the Senate.

The Senate vote for the Voting Rights Act was 77 to 19, with Democrats voting 47 to 17 in favor and Republicans 30 to 2 in favor. For the record, Al Gore Sr. did vote for this one.

The official left-wing version of history would have you believe that no Republican ever voted for black rights, and I for one am getting a bit sick of it.

Meanwhile, back to voting:

The leftists have promoted extending voting as widely as possible, particularly to groups that are dependent on the Federal Government for their livelihood, are poorly educated, convicted felons, or just plain stupid.

It should not have escaped anyone's notice that during the Florida debacle, screwed up votes--votes by people who couldn't figure out the simplest procedures--were automatically assumed during the conflict by both parties to be likely votes for Democrats, which says something right there. The Democratic target voter seems to be someone who is easy to fool, or cheap to buy.