Block the Vote
Via Sam Boyd, irate McCain supporters gather to protest and heckle a crowd of people . . . voting . . . in North Carolina:
Photographer Joe Eddins and I headed over to the closest one and found a steady line of voters hoping to cast ballots early. Most seemed to be Obama supporters and several had come from the rally. Nearly all the voters were black.
Also at the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in. Nearly all were white.
As you can see from these videos, no one held anything back. People were shouting about Obama’s acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word “terrorist.” They also were complaining that Sundays are for church, not voting.
Of course there’s no way to tell who some people standing on a line are going to vote for. You can, however, tell whether or not the people standing on the line are mostly black and decide you want to stage a protest against the abomination that is black people exercising the franchise. As Boyd observes “These folks are going beyond the McCain campaign’s previous attempt to demonize ACORN and doing something that looks very much like voter intimidation — especially disturbing considering the history of racist violence surrounding voting in the South.”
53 Responses to “Block the Vote”
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October 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Of course, they wouldn’t have done the same thing if all those voting were white. Let’s not even consider that, instead let’s just mindlessly play the race card. It’s the Harvard way!
October 20th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Wow.
We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
“Of course, they wouldn’t have done the same thing if all those voting were white.”
Hey, he’s starting to get it!!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Isn’t campaigning at a polling place illegal?
October 20th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Interesting that the original report comes from the Washington Times. I know they have a new editor who wants to make them a respectable newspaper. It looks like it’s working.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
If too many white right wingers show up at voting lines to scream at black people in line to vote, some of ‘em are about to discover they, the loud rightists, are not quite as tough as they think they are. I think a whole hell of a lot of Americans have had it with their fake tough guy acts.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Of course there’s no way to tell who some people standing on a line are going to vote for.
I don’t understand this sentence. Surely you can’t know who an individual person is going to vote for. But statistics tell us that if 95% of blacks are voting for Obama, then in a group of, say, 20 black voters, you should have (to some reasonable degree of certainty) 19 Obama voters. Or does statistics not work in North Carolina?
October 20th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
ACORN is paying the jobless to register Mickey Mouse to vote – who never will – while McCain’s goons are bringing all of their racist and intimidation to bear on law abiding citizens who are voting – legally. And what gets the non-stop attention from McCain and the MSM? Pathetic.
Where are the cops to drag these neanderthals to Gitmo?
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
October 20th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Matt, perhaps it’s time to connect the dots and point out that ACORN’s leadership is black as is much of its staff, and it operates overwhelmingly in black neighborhoods. Might help clarify why they are the Willie Horton of this campaign.
In general, it would be nice if you could go beyond the standard ACORN-is-harmless liberal line and point out how valuable their work is, even if much of it wouldn’t be needed in a better organized system.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
We were registering voters on Saturday. My husband and I are white, there was an Asian teenager, and an African-American woman. The adults were all prosperous, middle class, professionals. I have registered a lot of voters in election years, occasionally someone will walk by and toss out an insult directed at my candidate, but this Saturday on two separate occasions, people came up and called us “un-American” for registering voters. We explained that we would be happy to register anyone (we had a big Democratic Party sign on the table), but they were still angry with us. I’ve never had anything like that happen. It was weird.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Remember, Kelly4Ahead isn’t a racist. It’s just his readers, and construing his mumblings about race-based insurgency to imply that he expects a race-based insurgency is completely out of line. Also, he doesn’t get out much.
Also, presuming any kind of hate-based motivation from, say, the people who dumped a dead black bear cub, shot in the head, on a North Carolina college campus with Obama signs over its head, is completely out of line. It’s Kelly’s Bullshit Book!
October 20th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
it’s like the movie Downfall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Untergang
October 20th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Isn’t campaigning at a polling place illegal?
You can’t campaign within a certain distance of the door to the place — looking at the video, the protesters were across the street and surely outside the radius.
The spectacle of white people harassing black voters at the polling place does have a certain uncomfortable historical resonance.
It’s worth noting that the protester the reporter interviewed claims that he was angry at the fact that the board had decided to allow early voting on the day of the Obama rally (see the comments by Roger Farina in the Wash. Times post); however, the link he provides seems to suggest that there was already going to be early voting that day, and the voting board just decided to open more locations. Which seems reasonable if they’re expecting more voters than they had been.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
all ignorance and resentment. you have to say it out loud to believe it: mccain/palin campaign has been almost exclusively about characterizing a fellow american and potential president as an anti-american, terrorist-sympathizing, socialist radical. i know the country is used to it, but let’s not pretend an equivalency and let’s not pretend it doesn’t hurt the country. it’s pure bile. it’s destructive, it’s sad and deeply unpatriotic.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Three excellent things here. First, the hecklers will only motivate people to “vote harder,” as the saying goes. It’s not the 1950s and I don’t imagine that black voters of any age will be cowed. Second, it looks like the Washington Times is bailing out on the McCain-as-man-of-honor trope, so a hearty welcome to them! Third, the 11 year old girl from Fayetteville in the final video clip is really remarkable–Thinkprogress ought to invite her to Washington.
As for Sundays being only for church, does that mean we can finally shut down the monstrosity that is NASCAR?
October 20th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Al,
If it’s OK to harass Democrats, and it’s OK to assume Black peopel are Democrats because of the color of their skin, then it’s OK to harass Black people because of the color of their skin. In a strictly logical sense, these people were being harassed because they were Voting While Black.
Isn’t there a problem with that logic chain somewhere? I think it should be OK to heckle people of the opposing party if you so choose, but if you do then you had damn well better make sure that they are ACTUALLY voting for the candidate you dislike. I would feel the same way, BTW, if Democratic partisans were heckling Pentecostals in Wassila by simply ASSUMING that all Pentecostals vote Republican.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
If anything, the heckling from the McCain supporters would serve as further incentive to vote Obama, would it not?
October 20th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
If Sundays are only for church, they’re not for heckling voters either–why aren’t those demonstrators in church?
And enabling citizens to vote is un-American? Wow, I thought I’d heard it all.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I don’t think the McCain camp realizes how much moderate white republicans are turned off by the overheated political rhetoric. If McCain loses (I can’t quite admit that Obama will win – 2000 and 2004 were too painful for me, so I can’t get my hopes up), he is going to blame it on the economy, rather than recognizing that most people are very uncomfortable calling other Americans traitors and using threats underpinned by implied racism to whip up mindless support. What has been remarkable for me in this campaign is not the stupidity of the numbskulls who support the fools who talk about pro-American areas of the country, but rather how I’ve watched my moderate Republican friends and family move beyond their party affiliation and identify McCain-Palin as a political strain that is more threatening to the country than anything Obama might do.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
“Wow, I thought I’d heard it all.”
Don’t worry, you haven’t even heard half of it yet. There’s still two weeks to go. Of course, I’m assuming that they won’t go so far as to declare democracy itself un-American and just cancel the elections. At this point, even that wouldn’t really surprise me.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Hector Says:
October 20th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Al,
If it’s OK to harass Democrats, and it’s OK to assume Black peopel are Democrats because of the color of their skin, then it’s OK to harass Black people because of the color of their skin. In a strictly logical sense, these people were being harassed because they were Voting While Black.
Isn’t there a problem with that logic chain somewhere? I think it should be OK to heckle people of the opposing party if you so choose, but if you do then you had damn well better make sure that they are ACTUALLY voting for the candidate you dislike. I would feel the same way, BTW, if Democratic partisans were heckling Pentecostals in Wassila by simply ASSUMING that all Pentecostals vote Republican.
While it is wrong to heckle anyone for voting (that’s not to say it should be illegal, but your belief that heckling people for voting is OK is ridiculous), please don’t tell me don’t see a difference in engaging in intimidating behavior against white Alaskans as opposed to black southerners. There is this thing called history that most of us are aware of, and it makes certain things work one way and not the other even if it doesn’t make much logical sense on its own.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Inciting a mob.
McCain’s 95 year old mother must be so proud.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Maybe because they look like ineligible felons illegally casting ballots.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
McCain supporters increasingly resemble the Terri Schaivo nutters. That doesn’t bode well for the GOP’s chances.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
That is to say, they are becoming more unhinged by the day. They think they can change reality if they become more hysterical and scream louder.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Why would people who lie and try to mess with a Fundamental Right care about going to church?
October 20th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Rich,
Voting isn’t a fundamental _natural_ right; it’s a civil right given to us by the constitution, and nothing more.
LFV,
Well, yes. I meant more that I don’t think that heckling voters is always wrong, in every context- I think there are some countries in the world today where politics is polarized enough that it would be legitimate. I don’t think the U.S. is in that position though, and I certainly think heckling people _for their race_ is evil as well as illegal.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Well, if Obama hadn’t gone and been black, and gotten people to want to vote for him instead of John McCain, then none of this would have had to happen. (Hey, where’s the sarcasm end tag?)
I don’t just want these ignorant twits to have to live in a country with a black, Democratic president; I want them to have to deal with black and/or Democratic politicians and neighbors every time they turn around.
Actually, it sounds like that’s exactly what they’re afraid of.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
# 24AheadDotCom Says:
October 20th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Of course, they wouldn’t have done the same thing if all those voting were white. Let’s not even consider that, instead let’s just mindlessly play the race card. It’s the Harvard way!
Now I know 24ADC has to be a deliberate parody.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Maybe because they look like ineligible felons illegally casting ballots.
To avoid any confusion that piece of shit isn’t trying to be sarcastic. This is your McCain voter.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Actually, he strikes me as a plain ol’ blog-whore. He writes incendiary posts with links to his blog to drive traffic there. It’s all about the blog traffic.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
At what point can we start holding Palin/McCain responsible for this sort of behavior? John Lewis had it exactly right, when you imply that your opponent is a terrorist, socialist, dangerous and un-american…..you’re not calling for violence but you give people the excuse to make the next logical progression.
If Obama is dangerous, than his supporters are dangerous. If an organization aimed at helping minorities is stealing the election, then minorities are stealing the election. Combine that with an angry, borderline extremist wing of the party in a region with the racial history like the South and that is a combustible mix. And there’s still two weeks of progressively nastiness to go. They can’t incite their crowds for weeks, than chide one especially crazy loon and wash their hand of the whole thing. This is the campaign you chose to run, it’s on you.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
At least the principled right wing hasn’t yet decided to express its suspicions about people waiting in line to vote by throwing rocks and debris at voters whom those same rightists think “look” illegal or at least suspicious somehow.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
People who work with terrorists don’t have a right to vote. Check the Constitution.
On a different topic, I’m trying to cope with the fact that my mother didn’t vote no on Prop. 8 in CA…she claims the institution of marriage is silly and outmoded…I need to avoid too much snark with her….
October 20th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Just don’t call them bitter.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
But no, McCain’s campaign is not at all responsible for the shit we’ve seen recently.
The guy better give one hell of a concession speech.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:23 am
I hope that 2-3 million Republican heads explode out of sheer angst after Obama wins. The nation will be a better place for it.
And just think of all of the jobs that would be created to clean up the mess. This is a win-win deal.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:40 am
It’s not Eisenhower’s America anymore. They keep this up and some cracker’s gonna get his clock cleaned.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:52 am
I still dream about seeing McCain or Palin’s Secret Service detachment arresting some of their psychopath supporters.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:56 am
but this Saturday on two separate occasions, people came up and called us “un-American” for registering voters
Losers. Love it.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
They keep this up and some cracker’s gonna get his clock cleaned.
Be modern about it. Get some good high-def video of the assholes and YouTube it. Then spread the links around to their neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, parole officers… the works.
Them’s the breaks. You are free to be a complete asshole, but don’t be surprised if the world learns about it in living, lurid detail. And remember, digital is forever, so their grandchildren are going to be sneering at this crap too.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:16 am
Sunsin: Them’s the breaks. You are free to be a complete asshole, but don’t be surprised if the world learns about it in living, lurid detail. And remember, digital is forever, so their grandchildren are going to be sneering at this crap too.
I wish I was so optimistic about their grandchildren’s attitudes. They may brag about this.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:02 am
Maybe because they look like ineligible felons illegally casting ballots.
Ugly racist sentiment aside, in North Carolina, felons are as eligible as anyone else to vote once they’ve served their time and done their parole/probation.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:06 am
It would have been OK to heckle voters (if nothing more) during the recent election in Zimbabwe?
October 21st, 2008 at 9:07 am
They keep this up and some cracker’s gonna get his clock cleaned.
The loudest heckling was from the McCainiacs, but both sides were present with signs. It was an odd gathering, that’s for sure.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
What’s amazing is that these people have no sense of shame regarding their behavior. Assuming this is their local polling place, these are their neighbors they are heckling. How could someone show their face at a PTA conference after acting this way?
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