• May 26, 2012
REPUBLICANS IN THE NEWS

October 20, 2011

GOP Jerk Thrilled That New Voting Law Stops Black People From Voting

by Ken Layne  

Democracy’s greatest champion in South Carolina, Republican strategist Wesley Donehue, was delighted to learn from a news story that a tough new anti-voting law has successfully stopped many, many black people from voting. The AP article is more than just informative, however — it “proves EXACTLY why we need Voter ID in SC.” How else can you legally bar 1,977 registered black voters from voting? Heh heh, we mean without the “old ways” of doin’ things Down South.

TPM has this:

The Associated Press put out a story this week showing that South Carolina’s voter I.D. law “appears to be hitting black precincts in the state the hardest.”

One person who really loved the story was Wesley Donehue, the CEO of Donehue Direct and a political strategist for the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus, who took to Twitter to write that the story “proves EXACTLY why we need Voter ID in SC.”

Follow Wesley Donehue on Twitter! esley Donehue on Twitter]

{ 121 comments }

nounverb911 October 20, 2011 at 4:17 pm

Can we build an electrified fence around SC now please?

memzilla October 20, 2011 at 4:34 pm

If we could turn racism into electricity, oil would fall to $10 a barrel.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

In THIS country? Shit, they'd be giving the fucking oil away!

CommieLibunatic October 20, 2011 at 4:48 pm

I'm not sure which is a more repulsive: that or the Thanatropic Generator.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:39 pm

Brilliant.

Lionel[redacted]Esq October 20, 2011 at 4:40 pm

But how could you hike the Ol' Appalachian trail then?

DahBoner October 21, 2011 at 4:25 pm

Turtle Tunnels.

Callyson October 20, 2011 at 4:53 pm

Why stop there? I vote to put it along the Mason – Dixon line. Maybe Maryland can come to the north this time, otherwise build the dang fence!

DahBoner October 21, 2011 at 4:24 pm

Can we build an electrified fence around SC now please?

In what language would you write the This Will Keel Youse All sign?

Barb October 20, 2011 at 4:22 pm

Pfft, South Carolina, where possum is "the other white meat."

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

And you never want to ask about "the other *dark* meat."

BaldarTFlagass October 20, 2011 at 4:26 pm

Your move, Strom Thurmond.

elviouslyqueer October 20, 2011 at 4:39 pm

That's what Carrie "Tunch" Butler said.

RavenRant October 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

I have a feeling that what 16 year old Carrie really said was more like, "No, please, stop, Mr. Thurmond!" followed by tears of helpless despair.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Geezus, I thought that miserable bastard was dead.

LesBontemps October 20, 2011 at 5:21 pm

Cannot be dead enough. I vote we dig him up and kill him again.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:36 pm

I'm cool wit' dat.

Oh, and then we get to piss on his skeleton and his grave.

weejee October 20, 2011 at 4:51 pm

Needz moar oak stakes.

Cicada October 20, 2011 at 4:53 pm

Strom was interviewed by Politico, and the worms digesting his mouldering brain were said to be "cautiously optimistic".

Maman October 21, 2011 at 8:54 am

More like: Your move, Eric Holder.

SorosBot October 20, 2011 at 4:27 pm

But I thought the voter ID laws were just to prevent hypothetical voter fraud, and not about stopping black people from voting.

memzilla October 20, 2011 at 4:40 pm

Black voters without gummint ID = voter fraud.
Hispanic voters without gummint ID = alien invasion.
White voters without gummint ID = defenders of states' rights.
Asian voters without gummint ID = Diebold programmers.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:42 pm

You wouldn't happen to need a *bridge,* or anything, would you? It's large, but quite attractive, and comes cheap.

NYNYNYjr October 20, 2011 at 6:28 pm

Black people voting is voter fraud. #WWJDD [What Would Jefferson Davis Do?]

nounverb911 October 20, 2011 at 4:28 pm

Needs more"Dueling Banjos".

BaldarTFlagass October 20, 2011 at 4:30 pm

These people are still bitter that they lost the Civil Rights War back in the 60s. Or Civil War, back in the 1860s. Or both.

ManchuCandidate October 20, 2011 at 4:36 pm

Pretty much anything since the invention of the steam engine except:
Cheez Whiz
the Assault Rifle
the automatic pistol

johnnyzhivago October 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

The War of Southern Independence to you, boy.

emmelemm October 20, 2011 at 5:25 pm

N'awthern Aggression, if you please.

SorosBot October 20, 2011 at 4:48 pm

Here is one interesting explanation of the Southern political culture (on pages 3 & 4):

The Deep South
Established by English slave lords from Barbados as a West Indies-style slave society, this region has been a bastion of white supremacy, aristocratic privilege, and a version of classical Republicanism modeled on the slave states of the ancient world, where democracy was the privilege of the few and enslavement the natural lot of the many. It spread apartheid and authoritarianism across the southern lowlands, ultimately encompassing most of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana, plus western Tennessee and southeastern Arkansas, Texas, and North Carolina. Its slave and caste systems smashed by outside intervention, it continues to fight for rollbacks of federal power, taxes on capital and the wealthy, and environmental, labor, and consumer safety protections.

The goal of the Deep Southern oligarchy has been consistent for four centuries: to control and maintain a oneparty state with a colonial-style economy based on largescale agriculture and the extraction of primary resources by a compliant, low-wage workforce with as few labor, workplace safety, health care, and environmental regulations as possible. Not until the 1960s was it compelled by African American uprisings and external intervention to abandon caste, sharecropper, and poll tax systems designed to keep the disadvantaged majority of their region’s population out of the political process. Since then, they have relied on fearmongering— over racial mixing, gun control, illegal immigrants, and the alleged evils of secularization—to maintain support. In office they’ve instead focused on cutting taxes for the rich, funneling massive subsidies to agribusiness and oil companies, rolling back labor and environmental programs, and creating “guest worker” programs and “right to work” laws to ensure a cheap, compliant labor supply. Tidewater, weakened to satellite status over the past 150 years, has fallen in line. But keeping Greater Appalachia and, now, the Far West in the coalition has been trickier, as both have strong populist and libertarian streaks that run counter to the interests of the modern-day southern aristocracy.

V572-⁂½‡‡‡‡‡ October 20, 2011 at 4:56 pm

Shorter, from some guy named "A Lincoln," a Republican, in an 1858 debate:

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.

Rick Perry meant to say something like this the other night, but it didn't come out so well.

yyyaz October 20, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Shorter: Greedcentric, douchebag racists fear change. The more things change, etc.

user-of-owls October 20, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Shortest: T

Geminisunmars October 20, 2011 at 7:27 pm

One fist for the OWS!

GOPCrusher October 21, 2011 at 4:27 pm

"Aristocratic privilege"?
Is that what they call having trailer skirts on the old double-wide these days?

FrenchTwist40 October 21, 2011 at 2:12 am

Lincoln made a huge mistake in fighting the secession of the South instead of just waving goodbye…

ttommyunger October 20, 2011 at 4:34 pm

But our President is still near, asshole, and he, his wife and kids have full run of the White House 24/7. How 'bout them apples, whitey?

Mumbletypeg October 20, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Funny how putting a darkishly complected individual in their governor's mansion, also, seems not to have made a whit of impact on racial transcendence in ol' South Cackalacky, either.

ttommyunger October 20, 2011 at 4:46 pm

Well, she ain't got no funny name, and she's not too hard on the eyes, and if you want to (and they do) one can pretend she just hits the tanning bed twice a week.

Fare la Volpe October 20, 2011 at 6:51 pm

Please. Albinos are tanner than Nikki.

That's how she got away with putting "white" on her census form.

horsedreamer_1 October 22, 2011 at 2:54 am

Maybe she's an Aryan.

AJWjr. October 22, 2011 at 4:03 pm

How could she get away with that? When I tried to celebrate some of my duskier/redder ancestry by checking the Native/Eskimo box one time, they sent me a questionaire demanding proof, long-form birth certificates of said ancestors, etc. Whe the fuck, it ain't like I was trying to get a minority loan or anything, but I've been caucasian ever since, much to my chagrin.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

They'll do whatever they can to get rid of him, though. Gads, it's a miracle they aren't out on the streets calling for RAHOWA. Miserable motherfuckers.

Ayn Rand Paul Tard October 20, 2011 at 4:45 pm

You can bet there will be some major reno work done before the next Republiklan president steps foot inside that place. Probably by illegals but it will be okay for them to do it.

ttommyunger October 20, 2011 at 4:50 pm

S'O.K. I know it drives them nucking futs just thinking about all those black asses sitting on White House Porcelain. They'll never get over it, either, no matter how much renovation is done.

chascates October 20, 2011 at 4:36 pm

First the racist comment, then the 'explanation', then blame the other party for lack of sense of humor/being the real racists/being stupid.

Twitter for turdheads 101.

BaldarTFlagass October 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

We're talking South Carolina here. No explanation will be forthcoming, unless it's "Yeah, we hate the blax. Suck it America."

edgydrifter October 20, 2011 at 4:39 pm

Because hanging a noose in front of every polling station would be too subtle?

WriteyWriterton October 20, 2011 at 5:30 pm

They've inbred too much to remember how to knot the rope.

johnnyzhivago October 20, 2011 at 4:40 pm

Somehow "strategist" is being overused when people who are stupid enough to send self incriminating public Twitter messages adopt it as their title.

Lionel[redacted]Esq October 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm

If the founders had wanted for Black people to vote, don't you think they would have said something about it in the Constitution?

BarackMyWorld October 20, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Snark aside….wasn't this type of thing already banned by the SCOTUS?

Lionel[redacted]Esq October 20, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Like the Conservative Activist on the current court give a damn about what some former court did if it gets in the way of money.

Callyson October 20, 2011 at 4:55 pm

SCOTUS reversal in 3…2…1…

SorosBot October 20, 2011 at 4:59 pm

Sadly, no; they said it's OK as long as the IDs are free.

jus_wonderin October 20, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Free is hardly ever free.

DahBoner October 21, 2011 at 4:21 pm

The IDs are free, but you need something either a birth certificate or passport to get and ID, so it's not free, free…

GOPCrusher October 21, 2011 at 4:30 pm

Yes. And it also was made part of the law that any change in voting requirements proposed in states that have a record of racism, is to be reviewed by the Department of Justice.
Too bad the DOJ was defunded in the 2008 election.

Negropolis October 21, 2011 at 10:31 pm

Too bad the DOJ was defunded in the 2008 election.

Wait, what?

Anyway, this really needs a review to see if it violates the VRA.

LetUsBray October 22, 2011 at 5:06 pm

You'd think this yahoo's comment would be the proverbial money shot in making the case that it does, and that it was precisely intended to do so. Unfortunately, in today's political climate and corporate-wingnut supreme court, it's tough to be optimistic.

LettucePrey October 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

Excuse me, but some of his best friends are black non-voters.

Ayn Rand Paul Tard October 20, 2011 at 4:43 pm

I've never been to Arizona, Missouri, Texas or Oklahoma, but S. Carolina is without a doubt the shittiest, most unpleasent state I've gone through. My question is, why dont we hear more stuff like this from SC (aside from the horrible politicians)?

NYNYNYjr October 20, 2011 at 6:32 pm

South Carolina is like North Carolina, if NC didn't fix or clean anything for 20 years.

Negropolis October 21, 2011 at 3:10 am

We don't? If it doesn't seem like a regular occurence the only thing I can think of is that South Carolina is kind of a pioneer in this shit. In other words, they've already done it; been there/done that.

slowhansolo October 21, 2011 at 2:11 pm

That was my experience, too. Everyone I met was dead-eyed sullen, terminally stupid, and/or incomprehensible. Bonus fun for hearing the word "nigger" six times in the time it took to buy smokes at a convenience store.

Wonderthing October 20, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Huh, back in the day we didn't NEED no fancy "rules". We'd just put Clem on the front steps of the polling place and have him look at the coloreds real mean. You fancy folk sure have taken the fun outer thangs.

elviouslyqueer October 20, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Here's how darling Wesley describes himself, on teh Twatter:

Political operative running a campaign or two online. Follower of Christ. Southern. Host of Pub Politics.

IOW, a hypocritical racist douchebag with a secret weakness for underage boybutt.

BaldarTFlagass October 20, 2011 at 4:46 pm

You can lead a Christ-following hypocritical racist douchebag to the Sermon on the Mount, but you can't make him listen or comprehend.

LettucePrey October 20, 2011 at 4:57 pm

He left out “has the face of a date rapist.”

starfanglednut October 20, 2011 at 5:14 pm

Douchy baseball hat with brim shaped around bud lite can?

Check.

Douchy stubble beard?

Check.

Douchy sun glasses?
Check

20 extra pounds, primarily alcohol bloat?

Check

Yup, date rapist.

DashboardBuddha October 20, 2011 at 5:55 pm

WWJD?

Who would Jesus Disenfranchise?

prommie October 20, 2011 at 4:44 pm

They have so many imaginative new euphemisms for "nigger." "Community Organizer," "ACORN," Kenyan, Socialist, Liberal, Voter Fraud, Teleprompter, Welfare, Crackhead, "47%," it goes on and on.

yyyaz October 20, 2011 at 5:40 pm

Forgot St. Ronnie's "young buck."

Indiepalin October 20, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Does Wesley Donehue think English should be our official language? Because judging from his twitter account, it doesn't appear to be his.

elviouslyqueer October 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm

SOUTHERN DRAWL LIBEL, Y'ALL.

poncho_pilot October 20, 2011 at 4:44 pm

submission accomplished.

SayItWithWookies October 20, 2011 at 4:48 pm

Okay, the AP article cited by Donehue and TPM says this:

The precinct that votes at Benedict College’s campus center has 2,790 voters, including nine white voters. In that precinct, 1,343 of the precinct’s nonwhite voters lack state identification but only five white voters. They account for 48 percent of the precinct’s voters.

And Donehue infers from that that half the Benedict College students are out-of-state and voting in SC illegally, which is the only way his original comment can be defended as not racist. Of course, most voters are older than college age, and even more so in midterm elections, so his argument doesn't even stand up to the cursory statistical analysis that he himself uses.

But whatever — it's the Democrats who are pointing this out who are racists, of course.

SorosBot October 20, 2011 at 4:56 pm

College students are also a victim of this law, seeing as most out-of-state students don't get their drivers license changed, even though they are legally allowed to vote where they live for 3/4 of the year. Since students are younger and more liberal than old people, that's just a nice little bonus for their new Jim Crow law.

horsedreamer_1 October 22, 2011 at 2:59 am

And like my GOP rooting cohort Nick, sometimes they'll vote twice, once in Fond du Lac County (Neumann over Feingold, '98), and again in Suburban Chicago (Henry Hyde's re-elect).

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 4:51 pm

This is the kind of story that knocks me flat on my ass where I sit until I can fucking breathe again. It's not that I don't expect it. I do. I'm not ignorant, stupid, or delusional. It's the blatant, nasty, shamelessness of it all. They know what they're doing is morally AND legally wrong, yet they will do it anyway and defy anyone to stop them. Over, and over, and over, about every little thing, until you just get tired of fighting them. Today it's voting rights. Tomorrow, it's your right to walk on a public street without being arrested and jailed for "resisting arrest," by some lying racist cop. And the day after that, it's having your State's legislature pass a law that says Poorz can no longer conduct their used-goods transactions using cash. Right. Like poor people have access to credit cards and banks.

May they die a thousand slow and painful deaths in fire and torment and may hordes of mutant foul animals defecate on their graves for centuries.

Mumbletypeg October 20, 2011 at 5:41 pm

I saw that story earlier. What a surreal world we live in.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:48 pm

Now I'm reading about some kind of bizarre Koch Bros/Corporatocracy plot to take away paid sick leave from working people. It just doesn't stop.

memzilla October 21, 2011 at 6:13 am
yyyaz October 20, 2011 at 5:42 pm

I say we set up a trust fund to feed the mutant animals.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Feel free to think of things to feed them that will adequately express your sentiments for these people.

yyyaz October 20, 2011 at 5:55 pm

We could start with oversalted teabaggers' genitals. Takes a lot to make a meal, but the supply seems ample enough.

baconzgood October 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm

South Carolina is racist? Who'da thunk it.

nounverb911 October 20, 2011 at 4:57 pm

They're not too fond of Jews either.

Callyson October 20, 2011 at 5:00 pm

This jerk's tweets include:
"I was a Christian who sinned out of frustration"
"I'm willing to be wrong, but I'm not willing to be racist or labelled as such"
"My point wasn't inartful when you read all my tweets"
JFC, the wingnuts are getting more and more whiny by the day…

glamourdammerung October 20, 2011 at 5:04 pm

They are not willing to be labelled a racist. How cute. Maybe the moron should not state racist nonsense if they are so upset about people pointing out racist statements they make.

starfanglednut October 20, 2011 at 5:09 pm

Nah, too logical.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:53 pm

That would be unfair, forcing them to be politically correct, like that. That's an infringement on their freedom of speech.

starfanglednut October 20, 2011 at 5:10 pm

The inartful dodger.

donner_froh October 21, 2011 at 10:45 am

"My point wasn't inartful when you read all my tweets"

I would rather burn in hell of all of eternity than read anything else he has written.

Blueb4sunrise October 20, 2011 at 5:02 pm

Good news for Herm.

Indiepalin October 20, 2011 at 5:03 pm

From Twitter: "For the record, some of the most racist people I know are Democrats. The real race wars happen in Democrat primaries"

I think he means "Democratic" primaries.

glamourdammerung October 20, 2011 at 5:13 pm

Much like his claims of not being a racist, just because someone says something does not make it true.

Naked_Bunny October 20, 2011 at 5:51 pm

Keep in mind that Republicans call affirmative action and welfare programs "racism".

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:55 pm

The Republicans call *anything* that helps the Poorz "racism," even when you conclusively prove to them that there are WAY more white people using these programs than nonwhite people.

LetUsBray October 22, 2011 at 5:12 pm

"even when you conclusively prove to them that there are WAY more white people using these programs than nonwhite people."

Exactly: that's the part that's racist.

ingloriousbytch October 20, 2011 at 5:04 pm

I hate these fuckers.

Pristine_ODummy October 20, 2011 at 5:55 pm

With a passion.

hagajim October 20, 2011 at 5:05 pm

Are we sure Wesley Donahue isn't Jim Crow?

Lucidamente1 October 20, 2011 at 5:07 pm

I was thinking Lee Atwater.

starfanglednut October 20, 2011 at 5:08 pm

If the founding fathers had meant for every racist fucking asshole to have a global forum in which to express his excremental opinions, twitter would be in the constitution. 1!1!1!!!!

jus_wonderin October 20, 2011 at 5:53 pm

The Olde Twittere

WriteyWriterton October 20, 2011 at 5:34 pm

South Carolina? I'm not spending a dime in it until that law is repealed or overturned. Not now, not ever.

nounverb911 October 20, 2011 at 6:15 pm

Better not buy a BMW X3 or a Boeing 787 then.

Chichikovovich October 20, 2011 at 7:06 pm

Absolutely. I'm an Airbus man from now on.

BarryOPotter October 21, 2011 at 9:03 am

Fuck that. Gulfstream for this oligarch man!

DahBoner October 21, 2011 at 4:22 pm

Schwinn for this loser!

Naked_Bunny October 20, 2011 at 5:46 pm

Oh, be fair. He's not just a racist. He also thinks those elitist students coming to his state to spend ten of thousands of dollars should FOAD if they don't go to the DMV and try to get a driver's license with their college P.O. box number as the permanent address.

user-of-owls October 20, 2011 at 7:03 pm

If only there was a HBU that catered primarily to poor folk in his district, why he'd have his odious little self a trifecta!

fuflans October 20, 2011 at 7:55 pm

Hello, it’s a great day in South Carolina.

Antispandex October 20, 2011 at 10:27 pm

"the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus"

I can't see why they decided to call it that. KKK was a lot easier to spell, and for the majority of it's members, pretty much the same thing anyway.

Negropolis October 21, 2011 at 2:57 am

Wait, what “proves EXACTLY why we need Voter ID in SC.”? 'Cause, all those black people are illegal immigrants, right? Oh, that's right; it's not supposed to make any goddamned sense beyond removing black people from the voting rolls.

Well, you all know the old South Carolinian phrase. If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

Honestly, when are we going to go muckraking on these dirty motherfuckers? There are so many scandals just waiting to be exploited. I have absolutely zero qualms about digging up dirt on politicians who use their power to disempower, dehumanize, and disenfranchize entier swaths of our populations.

Beowoof October 21, 2011 at 10:14 am

Cam we get a chours of Welcome Back (the theme from Welcome Back Kotter) to welcome back Jim Crow.

slowhansolo October 21, 2011 at 2:13 pm

If God meant black people to vote, their parents would have left them lots of money.

AJWjr. October 22, 2011 at 6:30 pm

A couple of days late, but what the fuck kind of parents would send their chirruns to school in SC, anyway?

magginkat October 28, 2011 at 11:54 am

SC must be competing with Alabama for the most inane/insane state in the union.

user-of-owls October 20, 2011 at 10:25 pm

Aww, you remembered!

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