{"id":303,"date":"2007-06-20T10:45:44","date_gmt":"2007-06-20T10:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/06\/who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote.html"},"modified":"2007-06-20T10:45:44","modified_gmt":"2007-06-20T10:45:44","slug":"who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/06\/who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times reporter Pam Belluck&#8217;s article, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/06\/19\/us\/19vote.html?_r=2&amp;hp=&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=print\">States Face Decisions on Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote<\/a>&#8221; sort of reminded me of the tougher, revised Chinese laws on adoption&#8211;one stipulation being that no one taking antidepressants gets a kid. I know the discussion is more nuanced and difficult than that, but I had to think for a minute&#8230;are we Communist?<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/06\/19\/us\/19vote.html?_r=2&amp;hp=&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=print\">Click here for the full article.<\/a><br \/>\nI especially like this line:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I just think if you are declared insane you should not be allowed to vote, period,&#8221; said Joseph DeLorenzo, chairman of the Cranston Board of Canvassers. &#8220;Some people are taking these two clowns and calling them disabled persons. Is insanity a disability? I have an answer to that: no. You\u2019re insane; you\u2019re nuts.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now now, Chairman, there are a variety of nuts here in this country &#8230; some work better than others as a gift basket. Would you like a brochure?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times reporter Pam Belluck&#8217;s article, &#8220;States Face Decisions on Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote&#8221; sort of reminded me of the tougher, revised Chinese laws on adoption&#8211;one stipulation being that no one taking antidepressants gets a kid. I know the discussion is more nuanced and difficult than that, but I had to think&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote? - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/06\/who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote? - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New York Times reporter Pam Belluck&#8217;s article, &#8220;States Face Decisions on Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote&#8221; sort of reminded me of the tougher, revised Chinese laws on adoption&#8211;one stipulation being that no one taking antidepressants gets a kid. I know the discussion is more nuanced and difficult than that, but I had to think&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/06\/who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-06-20T10:45:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote? - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/06\/who-is-mentally-fit-to-vote.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote? - Beyond Blue","og_description":"New York Times reporter Pam Belluck&#8217;s article, &#8220;States Face Decisions on Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote&#8221; sort of reminded me of the tougher, revised Chinese laws on adoption&#8211;one stipulation being that no one taking antidepressants gets a kid. 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Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression &amp; Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. 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