But Conservatives Aren’t Racist

jamin | April 24, 2013 | 0 Comments

Y’all remember all the noise about voter fraud and registration that the GOP was trying to do in every swing state (plus a couple blue states to make it look like it wasn’t a racist or political move to try to get more GOP votes to count)? Okay, so Colorado is still trying to make things happen for 2014, apparently, and one of their conservative groups linked to Colorado’s Secretary of State sent out a mailer (presumably to only white GOPers) warning them of the dangers of having minorities vote. Well, they didn’t exactly say that, but they warned that if Mesa County goes to mail-only ballots, there would be no way to tell who was a felon, dead, or illegal immigrant when they mailed in a ballot.

I guess matching the envelope’s signature to a name on the voter roll wouldn’t work, or would it? I don’t know. I know you have to sign a mail-in ballot and I’ve seen applications with printed names and signatures. Surely that has to count for something.

This is interesting to me that the GOP claims this isn’t about race or class, but about fairness. They are also saying that they don’t have racists in their political party, but David Duke (Founder of the modern-day Ku Klux Klan [KKK]) and many white nationalists are registered Republicans. In addition there is a tone among the GOP and conservatives these days that seems to try to rewrite the horrors of slavery as not being all that bad – at least the slaves were provided food and shelter because the master apparently had a big heart and cared enough to see that happen for them. Good for Massa! And on top of all of this, it was southern conservative Democrats who didn’t want equal rights for Blacks with the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (they would up joining the Republican party right after President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law), and it was conservatives who wanted to hold onto slavery for so long in the south while liberals wanted abolition. But conservatives aren’t racist.

Enniweighs, this conservative group (Citizens for Free & Fair Elections for Landowning White Men – okay, I added everything after “Elections” in their name) sent out a mailer that is designed to make voters think about who is voting in elections. Illegal immigrants can vote! The horror! (I mean, honestly, if I were an illegal immigrant, voting would be one of the last things on my mind. Why do something that would cause me to fly right in the line of sight of the radar? Do illegal immigrants care about voting enough to fraudulently vote in elections in record numbers?)

The mailer even says that something as light as a utility bill can be used to verify voter identity. Meanwhile, these are the same people who probably wouldn’t want any ID shown for buying a firearm, but I digress. The shocker with the mailer is that the original photo from Getty images and looks like this:

Now, here is the photo from the mailer:

Chile…

Look. The white woman in the pink fleece is repeated about the face on what was the black woman in the gray hoodie. They didn’t even try to get some other white woman’s face on her. The taller black man in the middle in the blue hoodie is now gone.

“It’s an American’s right and Privilege to Vote…but only if you are an American and you are registered!” How does removing minorities help with voting you ask? They’re not white, which is what all true Americans are. Apparently.

Keep it up, conservatives. You’ll last longer that way, I’m sure. Thank God for Think Progress being there to smoke out stuff like this. I guess Broadway Musical Avenue Q was right: everyone is a little bit racist.

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