Associated Press
In his State of the Union address this week, President Obama hoped to illustrate the need for election reform by pointing to Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old woman in North Miami, who was told when she arrived at her polling place that there would be a six-hour wait. The point, of course, was to point to a dramatic example -- which no one could possibly defend -- to make clear the need for non-partisan improvements to the system.
There are, however, partisan concerns that make reforms difficult. For one thing, Republicans chose to make voting more difficult on purpose, so they don't see a problem worth fixing. For another, as Emily Arrowood noted, the Desiline Victor story didn't quite resonate with some on the right.
On Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade and Fox's Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer laughed off the difficulties 102-year-old Desiline Victor endured in order to vote in the 2012 election. Victor, who was invited to the State of the Union address and whom President Obama applauded for enduring a long wait to vote, had to make two trips to the polls and wait in line for over three hours before she was able to cast her ballot.
Discussing Victor, MacCallum wondered, "What's the big deal?" and said, "This is such a non-issue. Ridiculous." Hemmer added that at the State of the Union, "They held her up as a victim. What was she a victim of?"
Hemmer added that it doesn't matter whether this 102-year-old woman ended up with "rashes on the bottom of her feet."
Let this realization sink in for a moment: the United States is the only modern, industrialized democracy on the planet that tolerates eight-hour voting lines, even for centenarians, and for Fox News personalities, it's "ridiculous" to even try to improve the system.
Also note the shift in Republican rhetoric on this. As Michael Tuck reminded us the other day, Karl Rove was irate in 2009 when GOP voters in New Mexico were expected to wait in line for 45 minutes to vote. But now the Republican line is Desiline Victor's ordeal is a "non-issue"?
The "war on voting," which is intensifying in several states, has become increasingly shameless.
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Wonder if they would feel the same way were they to find out she voted for Romney.
Just more evidence that FauxNews "personalities" are sociopaths and/or they think their audience consists of sociopaths...
As I was noodling around on Google, I found this excellent article on sociopaths. Should be required reading for anyone who wants to avoid getting hoodwinked by these crafty critters, because I think the GOP of our day is full of them. Here's the link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036112_sociopaths_cults_influence.html
Here's a snippet from the article:
When you live in a bubble, you have no idea what it's like in reality. Rush Limbaugh said the other day that he was baffled by the attention Desiline Victor got because "voting is the easiest thing in the world, that's why Democrats can do it 2 or 3 times". He LIVES in Florida and claims he had "No idea" that voters had to wait up to 8 hours to vote. That bubble is apparently impenetrable even when events are happening right outside your door.
Limbaugh, of course, is a pathological liar and therefore cannot be blamed for his condition.
What I find the most disturbing about all of this (and I mean the whole voter suppression attempt nationally) is just the completely casual racism that these people demonstrate...it's like they just don't even think about it. It's the same with their attitudes toward Latinos and women and LGBT people...they just don't see anything wrong with it. If those are the "Traditional Values" they are so proud of they can keep them...preferably to themselves.
To them, Traditional Values = the 1950s, when white men were in charge, which is how they think it should be.
It will be interesting to see if they think discrimination is such a non-issue when they're in the minority. I'm guessing not.
Dragoon
It used to be a "Traditional Value" to respect the elderly. I guess that "Traditional Value" has gotten thrown out the window.
Voters shall first be mugged, prior to casting any ballot.
Actually that's what "True the Vote" and the other poll watchers aim to do (Only if you're a minority, democrat, wrong district, etc. . I doubt they're out in any rich and white polling places).
what I think is great about this is that they didn't explain why this is a non-issue. They just tossed it out there as such without a scintilla of explanation. I quite seriously cannot figure out how this is a non-issue. I mean beyond the hope that if they tell their audience it's not an issue their audience will believe it (I know that's their actual goal) but usually they have some sort of uninformed explanation for it. How is a 6 hour voting line a "non-issue" I cannot figure out the reasoning (which is probably why it was never explained).
Infuriating, isn't it? The Republicans throw out all kinds of accusations and suppositions and future predictions without ever having to explain themselves.
I'm sick of being required to take Republican talk at face value.
Guess facts are some "liberal" thing after all...
I'll frequent the first restaurant who "makes" Hemmer and MacCallum wait 6 hours for a seat.
When they complain, simply tell them, "What's the Big Deal?"
lowlife scum - the entire lot of them, from top to bottom.
These people should have shame heaped upon them unceasingly. Surely there must be some, even among republicans, who can see how shameful these remarks are.
They dare to further degrade an elderly, black, female, American citizen with their yawns and chuckles.
Thirty plus years of the Reagan philosophy of government is the problem, every man for himself has help produce such callousness, plus no doubt, the staff meeting of talking points kicked in. Had this been their Republican seniors in the Villages waiting for hours, I'm sure Congresssional hearings would have been needed to get to the bottom of the outrage. By my estimation, somewhere between 27 to 30 percent of voting Americans are represented by this way of thinking, the majority of the base of the GOP, no wonder all the Eric Cantor types only seek to change the language not the content of their policies. You can cut the hate with a knife and fork.
That's right, Md born. "And we won't stop until we get answers about this and Benghazi and everything else we can think of to throw onto the pile. We may be in the minority, but we know how to get our way. Neener-neener!"
Rupert Murdoch must be proud of the ignorant people he has on his payroll. What if he had to wait in line ?? Would the talking igorant heads think it was a non-issue ?? Just asking the question...
I hope these racist mofo's get what's comin to them in 2014
The pace of FOX&FRIEND's march toward the House of Irrelevancy seems to be quickening as of late!
Before they know it, they'll be inside, looking around, wondering why no one else is home!
Above thread Helen Bedd calls them sociopaths - I politely disagree - they're merely privileged dolts! -Kevo
"Above thread Helen Bedd calls them sociopaths - I politely disagree - they're merely privileged dolts!" -Kevo
Kevo...this isn't necessarily an either/or proposition....
Yes, when Republicans have to wait more than 5 minutes to do anything, it is a national issue. When Democrats want to wait shorter than 3 hours to do anything, it is a non-issue.
We must get ready to VOTE now for 2014, we can not get lazy we must keep thinking like them(gop)
how come Obama didn't talk about the ohio poll worker that admitted to voting multiple times?