On August 10, Hillary Clinton spoke at a rally of supporters in Des Moines, Iowa. Referring to Donald Trump's 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 cannot believe I'm hearing this from a presidential candidate. She's suggesting her supporters commit voter suppression by stopping friends from voting if they intend to vote for Trump.
Voter suppression by definition is 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 Drivers (MAD) slogan, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." In 1983 MAD introduced this slogan urging people to look out for the lives of friends and others on the road by keeping them from drunk driving. According to the AdCouncil, since MAD launched the campaign, 68 percent of Americans report they have tried to prevent someone from driving after drinking. How dare Hillary twist this laudable slogan to incite people to commit federal crimes.
Voter suppression laws vary by state, but federal law supersedes 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 up to her followers how to carry out this form of voter fraud, but 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.
What kind of temperament must a presidential candidate have to 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, as the mainstream media no doubt will. It's up to those of us who care about the truth to point out this egregious suggestion of criminal activity made by a presidential candidate.
After Trump uttered his controversial Second Amendment remark, retired Gen. Michael Hayden told CNN in an interview, 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 a silly appropriation of a famous slogan meant to induce laughter. However, others may hear a command to commit voter suppression.
Or is Trump the only candidate eligible to be raked over the coals for "what people hear."
2 comments:
Oh come on give me a break. She is just saying that we should have discourse.
Okay, you didn't get it. I understand. Maybe I was a bit too subtle.
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