No, it isn’t a spoof!!!!
Yes, its a spoof, but why have I known people who talk just like this southern dude? In fairness, do you find this kind of ignorance north of the Mason-Dixon line? I say yes. Just not in this skit.
The new voting laws in North Carolina go beyond getting an ID. At Appalachian State, the polls are often several miles from the campus and off the beaten path. It appears that the new laws are more against democrats than against any minority. The changings have come from republican controlled state legislatures.
Anyone voting absentee in Virginia ought to demand change. Too many hoops to jump through and unless you call the registrar, there is really very little you can do if there is a snafu, like there was with my experience. Yes, I have finally voted. One last step, checking my history online to see if my name is marked as having voted.
Why don’t we make voting by mail easier? Right now it is a huge pain in the neck. It seems like it would save money to just allow those who want to vote by mail to do it. No long lines. There is absolutely no excuse for lines with 3-4 hour waits, regardless of what the report from Prince William County said. If you ask me, it was the fox guarding the hen house from the git-go.
UPDATE:
I swear, I thought it was a spoof. I honestly did. It just didn’t occur to me that someone was really this stupid.
Read more from politico.com
The scary part was the head of the GOP for that county wasn’t a spoof, he was for real. He just loves sayin’ that N word, multiple times.
The utter disrespect is simply inexplicable. Can anyone imagine looking the President of the United States in the eye and saying” I can’t stand to look at you” …WTF?
This was no spoof and it tore away what little threads of disguise might have previously been used to hide the ugliness of voter suppression campaigns. The Daily Show should get a Pulitzer.
This guy (I guess his white sheet no longer fits) is perhaps a bit dumber and less adroit than the average politician or pol groupie, but someone has let him exist within the Party of Lincoln for longer than a minute, and that’s a problem repeated tens of thousands of times over in the last 45 years. He was on North Carolina’s Republican Executive Committee (he got booted after this Daily Show segment was aired). But one can assume his views were not unknown to his colleagues. I also suspect that his views were not at all atypical in Republican circles. I’ve heard this stuff myself in small rooms.
Voter restriction laws address non-problems and are intended to lower voter turnout. They are sponsored by a political party that fears voters and assumes (probably correctly, alas) that their candidates, on balance, do better if fewer people vote. It is voter suppression, pure and simple. It is not hyperbole to call it that. The hope is that the courts will protect the citizens against this and that, sooner rather than later, the Republican Party will rid itself of the instinct to fear the voters.
I seriously thought it was a spoof. That is horrible that that guy was a real person. I know it exists but I thought the guy was an actor. Tell me people aren’t really this stupid. If you think like that, pretend, for God’s sake.
I think that perhaps both political parties ought to start having members pass an IQ test before they are allowed membership.
What kind of moron says stuff like this on national TV. When I originally posted this thread I seriously thought it was a skit spoofing some redneck. I had no idea the dude was for real.
I was sitting here whooping and howling, especially when Mandvi said, “you know we can hear you.” Seriously. Is this guy’s speech so accepted in his region that he feels h can just say this stuff without wincing? Speechless in Manassas. He fooled me for sure. I drank the spoof kool aid.
Damn it, I grew up in the segregated south. I have had a face to face with the KKK, the imperial lizard Wizard whatever. He didn’t even talk this bad. In fact, I only know of one person in my life who was this openly racist and inappropriate.
@Moon-howler
You led a sheltered life – lol! I had a real eye-opener in high school when I went to Daytona Beach with a classmate’s family. These were regular businesspeople in town, but the riots to integrate the beach a few years earlier loosened their tongues and gave this Yankee-born kiddo a shock. My siblings and I occasionally were subject to harassment from the usual redneck sources because we still had a lingering “foreign” accent.
This guy doesn’t surprise me at all – just listen in on conversation in crowds or at restaurants when you’re south of Fredericksburg – though he was so blatantly bigoted that I, too, thought it was a spoof originally.
The guy is somewhat extreme, but consider that he held (until he got publicly outed – but a lot of people had to know) positions of responsibility in the local and state GOP. The woods are full of these guys. The Daily Show/Mandvi piece didn’t have to scratch very deep, but it sure shone a light on the internal structural problem that a Party founded on civil rights principles faces. How does a guy like this last for 30 seconds in the Republican Party? How do thousands of guys like this last for 30 seconds in the Republican Party?
sad part is that he does not think he was out of line at all – http://www.mediaite.com/tv/resigned-gop-chair-unapologetic-over-racist-remarks-calls-republican-party-gutless/ – and that he does have supporters that have gotten him into his position even though he is very forward with his views.
This man is not some outlier. He is part of the structure of the Party. He’d still be holding these positions today if the Daily Show hadn’t just let him say what he thinks.
@Scout…and put it on TV for everyone in America to see.
To be fair to the GOP, the Democrats used to have the ancestors of that dude. They just all flocked on over to the Republicans about 50 years ago.
But yes, that would be part of the structure. I know people don’t like admitting that. I have known people that bad, they just are not stupid enough to say it into a mike. They also clean up their act for public exposure.
Censored is right though…Fredericksburg seems to be the line of demarcation. MWC girl here. You also don’t have to go too far south of Bull Run to run into it either.
The republicans are trying to take away our right to vote. They should know that we will defend our right to vote by any means necessary.
And I’m glad that fat-ass quit.
In fairness to the NC local R’s—Yelton was a real problem to them. I listened to the long interview with him on some conservative talk show. You could tell from what he said that other people had issues with him for being such a blundering A-hole.
I guess what I am saying is, maybe others shared his feeling but he is the one stupid enough to voice them. We will never be able to control what people think but…most folks have filters so that crap like that doesn’t come out of their mouth.
The conservative talk how host tried his best to point out to Yeltson that he had been had…Yelton was having none of that!! I am not so sure Yelton didn’t have some cognitive issues also.
@Moon-howler
That’s good to know. Thanks for taking the time to delve beyond the sound bite and then inform the rest of us.
You are welcome, Kelly. I think its wrong to broad brush an entire group based on the behavior of the biggest jackass in the group. I do think the NC new voter restrictions are wrong, but I don’t like branding all NC Republicans under this guy’s racist wings.
@Moon-howler
“To be fair to the GOP, the Democrats used to have the ancestors of that dude. They just all flocked on over to the Republicans about 50 years ago.”
Finally, someone has a bit if intellectual honesty on this subject, although it is more like 30 years ago. 1980 election to be precise, although the change started with the 1972 Democrat convention. The ascention of the “McGovernites” scared the hell out of the Yellow Dogs, and prompted a migration away from a party that appeared to increasingly more left ideologically. Prior to this time, neither party was particularly left of right of center.
Each party has had their outlyers, Ex-Clansman have held officer or have run for office under both parties banners (Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, Candidate David Duke). I’ve often read some very ignorant posts here, claiming that the GOP is institutionally and historically racist. Sorry, but the historical record directly refutes this. Not to long ago someone brought up Strom Thurman and Trent Lott. Strom Thurman did have a history of holding racist positions, and was elected to office with segregationist positions….but was elected as a Democrat, by Democrats, during a time when Southern Democrats were a different breed of hound than Northern/Urban Democrats. Trent Lott? He didn’t say anything overtly racist. He was trying to be complimentary of a very old man (Thurmond), at a party. Klunky and awkward, ill-thought-out comments that were blown all out of context, and cost him his speakership.
I grew up in Boston, and even then Beantown was a place where Republicans were more scarce than hen’s teeth. I do remember vividly the reaction of the public, AND the elected government when a Federal judge ordered that the schools be “desegregated”. In his opinion school districts were drawn to keep minority schools primarily minority, and the “white” schools “white”. I remember the protests. These weren’t Republicans opposing busing students out of their neighborhoods to other schools to change the racial make-up of the student -body. These were Democrats. Northern Democrats. Boston, Kennedy-voting Democrats.
Does this guy need to be booted from the NCGOP? Certainly, as he has demonstrated a high propensity for “knucklehead”. However, a “precinct chair” is a small fish in the overall party organization, and hardly representative of the Republican Party in North Carolina, Nationally, and certainly not representative of RPVA. Do we know how he came by his position? Perhaps he was the only person willing to serve as Chairman of that county precinct. Thanks to Moon for attempting to keep things in perspective.
The flocking started about the time of Barry Goldwater. He attracted a lot of people because of his stance on states rights. Things were fairly schizophrenic then as I recall. I was young and vapid but I still remember what people said.
To add to the schizophrenia, Lynnwood Holton was elected the first Republican governor since Reconstruction in the Old Dominion. Holton, who just happens to be Tim Kaine’s father-in-law, was a fairly liberal Republican. He and his wife sent their children to public school in integrated Richmond schools.
Steve is right. Boston had some of the worst backlash over forced bussing. The South was all grinning ear to ear over it because it wasn’t on their turf.
I don’t like to broad-brush any groups. Obviously a lot of people had a real issue with what’s his name before he went on the Daily Show. I mean how smart is it to go on a progressive show and use the N word? This guy was dumber than Lester Maddox. Maddox was also a D, just to illustrate the point.
I still don’t like what NC has done with the voter ID but to brand everyone in the likeness of Don Yelton is simply inaccurate.
@Moon-howler
“I don’t like to broad-brush any groups. Obviously a lot of people had a real issue with what’s his name before he went on the Daily Show. I mean how smart is it to go on a progressive show and use the N word? This guy was dumber than Lester Maddox. Maddox was also a D, just to illustrate the point”
Exactly. It’s easy to go out and find the kook in the crowd. I don’t think every Democrat is like the Occupiers, or New Black Panthers, and I have heard some outrageous things spoken by some democrats. The media loves to hold up someone contraversial, sensationalize their comments, and portray them as representative of the whole.
Ok, it looks as if this kook is just a small fry. As a matter of fact, he was previously removed from the county committee, and only recently reinstated. He states he has often clashed with the leadership of his party. He wasn’t a member of the NC State Central Committee, just his local executive committee, by virtue of his being a precinct captain. My guess, is he was the only person willing to do the job.
http://www.mountainx.com/article/53751/Don-Yelton-responds-to-criticism-of-his-controversial-Daily-Show-interview
Still a kook but not particularly representative of all North Carolinians. Even if they agree with every word he said, I am willing to bet that 95% of those in agreement are smart enough not to say it publically, especially on a national TV show.
Elena,
It would appear, according to Whitehous Spokesman Jay Carney, that reports of this incident are false. Of the Senators claiming that this did happen, none (by their own admission) were present when it supposedly happened. So, they heard it from a friend, who heard if from a friend who, heard it from another….an unfounded rumour.