Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Hillary makes blatant public call for voter suppression!

On August 10, Hillary Clinton spoke to a rally of supporters in Des Moines, Iowa. Referring to Donald Trump's recent comments on the Second Amendment, she said: “Yesterday we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments by Donald Trump that crossed the line.” She went on to say, “As a young man in Florida said to me the other day, friends don’t let friends vote for Trump.”

Who has crossed the line now?

She's continued to say this phrase at rallies in the following days. "Friends don't let friends vote for Trump." I can't believe I'm hearing this from a presidential candidate. She's suggesting that her supporters commit voter suppression by stopping friends from voting if they intend to vote for Trump.

Voter suppression is, by definition, a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing people from exercising the right to vote. Isn't that exactly what Hillary is asking her supporters to do?

Adding to the offensive nature of this comment is the fact that it's a direct ripoff of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) slogan, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." In 1983, MADD introduced this slogan urging people to look out for the lives of friends and others on the road by stopping them from drunk driving. One popular TV commercial said, "...do whatever it takes to stop him." According to the AdCouncil, since MADD launched the campaign, 68 percent of Americans report they have tried to prevent someone from driving after drinking. It's clearly a very effective slogan. 

How dare Hillary twist this laudable slogan to incite people to commit federal crimes.

Voter suppression laws vary by state, but federal laws supersede any state provisions in federal elections. There are specific federal laws against, and penalties for, bribing or in any way preventing a person from exercising his or her right to vote.

Hillary has repeatedly (often while cackling at her own cleverness) urged supporters to stop friends from exercising their right to vote because they'd vote for Trump. By using the plural "friends," she's asking her followers to commit multiple criminal acts of voter suppression. She leaves it to her followers to decide how to carry out this form of voter fraud.  By appropriating MADD's slogan, is Hillary suggesting her supporters "do anything to stop them?" The ways to stop someone from getting to the polls could be easily carried out on a massive scale, as she instructs them to do it at each rally she holds. All of her rallies are available online, thus expanding the numbers of devotees who'll hear her calls to action.

What kind of temperament must a presidential candidate have to openly tell people to commit voter suppression? Doesn't this repeated command alone suggest Hillary Clinton is unfit for the office of President of the United States?

This kind of dangerous rhetoric cannot go unexamined and ignored, but the mainstream media will likely do both. It's up to those of us who care about the truth to point out this egregious authoritarian order for the mass commission of federal criminal voter suppression being made by a presidential candidate. Our election integrity is at risk.

Speaking about Trump's controversial Second Amendment remark, retired Gen. Michael Hayden told CNN, "You’re not just responsible for what you say. You are responsible for what people hear." 

When Hillary says, "Friends don't let friends vote for Trump," some may hear the silly appropriation of a famous slogan meant to induce laughter. However, others may hear a command to commit voter suppression. How many will heed her call?

The real question is, why is Trump the only candidate to be held responsible for "what people hear?"