There were few issues leading up to 2020 that threw the Democrats into tweaking fits and spasms more than President Donald Trump’s efforts to ask a citizenship question on the census: “Trump is destroying norms and traditions!”
But the truth, as mentioned in this meme, was always that the president was trying to restore a “norm and tradition” that was destroyed by Barack Obama. It was perfectly normal to ask a citizenship question on the 10-year census, until Obama nuked that “norm and tradition” in 2010.
Respondents were asked about their citizenship dating back to the 1820 census. 1840, 1850 and 1880 were the only three times in the 19th century when a citizenship question was not asked on the census.
There is one fact error on this meme: The only decade in the 20th century when there was no citizenship question on the census was in 1960. Other than that, every census asked the citizenship question.
And the reason why we ask the citizenship question is that it is absurd for a state like California to be apportioned more Representatives in Congress based on roughly 10 million illegal aliens living there. Citizenship Questions Matter!
