From yesterday’s Watertown Daily Times:
With his prospect of winning the 23rd Congressional District race now almost zero, Conservative Party candidate Douglas L. Hoffman suggested Wednesday in a letter that “ACORN, the unions and the Democratic Party†“tampered†with results to deny him victory.
A few days ago Hoffman “unconceded” after he was told counting of absentee ballots showed him trailing by only 3,000 or so votes instead of 5,000. Hoffman provided no evidence for his claims, and the Republican county chairman says Hoffman is all wet. He observed the election closely, the chairman said, and saw no evidence of tampering.
Update: George J. Williams, Oswego County Republican chairman, said Mr. Hoffman’s assertion “is not accurate.†The chairman said he roamed the county on Election Day and saw no evidence of tampering.
Update: Alex Koppelman reports that a majority of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Obama. Steve Benen is skeptical about the poll numbers Koppelman sites, but adds,
One in four Americans — and a majority of self-identified Republicans — believes this was made possible due to the secret, carefully-executed, coordinated national efforts of a community group that can’t recognize fake pimps?
In the Republican brain, ACORN is morphing into a cross between the Illuminati and the bogyman.
Levi-Strauss noted that the more insular and outside the cultural mainstream a sub-culture grows, the more it tends to create self-referential systems to justify any measures it takes. One is these is externalizing blame for its failures: they are never its fault. It wouldn’t surprise me if Beck has Hoffmann on his show to commiserate, and push the ACORN-did-it meme still further.
“In the Republican brain, ACORN is morphing into a cross between the Illuminati and the bogyman.”
The wing-nuts use the word Acorn to really mean the word “nigger”. They know they can’t say the N word in public so they just say Acorn. What they really want to say is that the “niggers” stole the election for Obama. In the mind of the extremist wing-nut the lazy inner city blacks have no rights and should not be allowed to vote, they also consider women in the same regard, “I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote.†– Ann Coulter 2/26/01.
Ronnie Raygun, George W. Bu$h, Sarah (ya betcha) Palin: Why do publicants love dumb people?
Can anyone explain to me what the outrage over Acorn is about? So its a bunch of young people registering other young people to vote, so what? I would think its reasonable to say they could reform the way they pay these folks, to reduce the likelihood of malfeasance and fictional people registering to vote, that would be a specific critic of Acorns operation, but instead we just get a bunch of hot air. I don’t understand it…
On another republican sideshow, the cross-dresser Rudy Gualani (spelling?) wants to run for Senator in New york? Brother…
Can anyone explain to me what the outrage over Acorn is about?
Not really, no. Especially considering all the stuff that didn’t outrage these same people.
I think uncledad may be on to something with his notion that the A-word is (subconscious, perhaps?) code for the N-word.
Letting the riffraff vote! The idea!
To the mahablog commenter who previously pointed out the facial similarities between Rudy Giuliani and the Crypt Keeper….You nailed it! Good call.
Crazy About Urban Planning asked:
Can anyone explain to me what the outrage over Acorn is about? So its a bunch of young people registering other young people to vote, so what?
I can see two reasons for the (feigned) “outrage.” First, since ACORN overwhelming registers poor black voters (they do their work in ghetto neighborhoods), they are registering people who overwhelmingly (about 90%) vote for Democrats.
Secondly, the GOP has been accused (legitimately) with stealing elections, including 2000 when Bush was “elected” after removing 700,000 black voters from the rolls in Florida. As we have seen, it’s standard Karl Rove strategy to deflect criticism by accusing the opposition of doing exactly what you yourself are doing.
One ACORN reference = at least 3 Niggers and two Spic’s. That’s a right-wing full house!
I’m too tired to explain this. I think you know. Nothing is ever the fault of conservativism. When they lose, it’s never their fault. It’s the fault of ACORN, or some other oraganization like the MSM. When they win and fail, it’s not their fault either, it’s the fault of the conservatives who weren’t conservative enough, the MSM, and ACORN. It’s the circle-jerk that NEVER ends.
As uncledad said in the post above yours, ‘ACORN’ is the new dog whistle for ‘black.’
When the wingnuts get outraged about ACORN, what they’re really objecting to is the idea of black people voting.
Acorn has had more than its share of problems – financial irregularities (to put it kindly)- mismanagement – documented registration fraud. With that behind me, I believe the vast majority of volunteers for Acorn have been sincere, honest and committed to a better America through the power of the vote.
The FOX machine has attempted to make Acorn, as Barbara put it so well, ‘a cross between the Illuminati and the bogyman’. For a group who preaches ‘individual responsibility’, the wingnuts are short on accepting blame. Acorn is going to be the excuse for the results at the polls when wingnuts lose – because they can’t admit the voters rejected the teabager message and methods and candidate.
All this self-deception works well when it’s a gathering of the faithful, but what’s going to happen when teabagger candidates are rejected wholesale coast-to-coast in 2010 & 2012?
Doug,
I pray I’m wrong, but I think they have a really good chance in 2010 and 2012. We can’t let our laughter at their idiocy prevent us from working hard to stop them from winning in those elections.
The sad thing is that, with what the Obama adminstration has been doing in the past 10 months, and the Supid-Spits amendment, there’s little, or no incentive for someone like me to work as hard as I did in 2004 – 2008. They’ve given me NOTHING since the election. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!! I’ll have to overcome that feeling. It’ll be hard. I’m not sure I can do it. I’m not sure our voters will show up. And that, my friend, is their opening. It won’t be what they did, it’ll be what we didn’t do…
I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but if FDR had done what Obama had done, we might have been living in tee-pee’s, and we might have been, marginally, in the sphere of The Axis. If the Depression had worsened, Charles Linburgh might have been President.
Don’t EVER count the stupid people out. They don’t know when to stop…
This is their clash of belief vs reality. Obama, A black man with a foreign-sounding name, appears to be very intelligent, skillful, and charismatic? All of those attributes are reserved for whites (except for Asians who could be intelligent, but only if they are geeks). Everyone says this impossibility is President, this has to be a bad dream! Either that, or the election was NOT legitimate. Ergo, the election was stolen!
Or perhaps the push to de-legitimize ACORN has to do with their own GOTV efforts. The Republicans used the Evangelical churches, and were criticized because that is illegal.
Wingnuts project their own crimes & failings of the rest of us.
GOP church-based efforts = illegal, therefore ACORN (mostly Democratic) efforts must be illegal as well.
Plus they are just dumb as dogshit on the bottom of your shoe, and just as appealing.
You know, if ACORN actually had the kind of organizational ability, national influence and super-competence that the wingers accuse them of, the country would probably be a lot better off. Sigh.
c u n d gulag – The question is whether the GOP will allow anyone to run as a moderate – or ‘stealth’ conservative. If they can, we are in big trouble in 2010, potentilly 2012. I am hoping thet the GOP will continue in a charge to the far, far right because otherwise we will lose seats in 2010. I see less and less moderation as we go along – the professional politicains of the GOP seem to have no influence and that’s what bears watching over the next year.
I tend to agree with uncledad’s assessment.
I see two big themes emerging from the posts: 1) its due to racism & 2) its due to stupidity.
Maybe its because I haven’t encountered a great deal of racism in this country, and I live in a progressive community, but I just can’t see racism as a logical answer. I’m sure other people who are older or from different geographical areas as I am have different opinions, but I have always been led to believe America has moved past that issue – of-course we still have profiling and driving while black things going on – so maybe I am dead wrong.
The stupidity explanation is the one I a can sink my teeth into. I’ve seen stupidity and listened to stupid things before. If anyone has listened to the wingnuts in the last year that person has heard stupidity. People ranting and raving about losing “freedoms” and the constitution and goodness knows what else. I think what needs to be done here is have someone shut them up by just putting it simply: “you people are stupid and not worth my time to think about you or observe you.” Can’t we all agree on that?
Let me tie stupidity to Gulag’s post about the lack of real change. This year I learned something I had already suspected: our priority needs to be public financing of campaigns. These politicians have such strong ties to the corporate entities that they are confused about who their constituents really are.
I can see this because I haven’t lost my ability of independent thought and judgment, wingnuts on the other hand have become “ditto heads” and think whatever these corporate noise machines tell them. Therefore, they are lost in a bunch of hot air and swirling wind about freedom and all sorts of nonsense.
What is the solution to stupidity? I wish we could take the Rushbos of the world off the air – but the corporations they represent have bought the politicians who are supposed to have our interest at heart. I support ideas like encouraging travel to the sane parts of the world – I came back from two years in Europe with a much different (and better) political belief system. I wish the Federal government would just buy plane tickets for huge swaths of the mid west and southeast. The point is that the only way to solve stupid is to expose it to alternative ideas and better thoughts – when people lock themselves in the house listening to the corporations talking heads all day they won’t ever get this exposure and cure the stupid.
“but what’s going to happen when teabagger candidates are rejected wholesale coast-to-coast in 2010 & 2012?”
Th4e world as we know it will implode on itself, collapsing like a gassy old balloon crossing barbwire. Speaking of Sarah Palin. I predict She’ll be either burned at the stake, or given a shiny new T.V. show. Boy just wait until she leaves Todd and Marries into the Hannity Family, why maybe Shawn could be her step-son!
uncledad is onto something, but he left out Muslim socialist commie extremist Farrakan loving long legged Mack- daddy uppitty negro realestate bubble making tax stealing black hole from hell liberal flag burning ACLU Nancy Pelosi worshiping troop hating scumbags.
Balakirev; I think you mean Leo Strauss. (Levi was the blue jeans guy, common mistake.)
If you don’t like reality, create your own version of it. If you repeat a lie over and over and over it eventually becomes the truth. Their version of reality DEMANDS that all teabagger candidates win from now until they get both houses of congress and the Whitehouse back. If they don’t win an election, it must be the fault of evil liberals. Delusion – How else can the reichwingers justify the things they do?
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/19/pray-obama-psal/
You say you want a revolution…
You say you’ll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be all right…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29744_Page3.html
When I first read this I heard the theme from “Jaws” in the background – then I remembered it’s Glenn Beck & how well 9/12 went for him – probably by mid ’10 he should be undergoing electro-shock therapy in a pleasant facility somewhere. Then I just heard Mancini’s “Baby Elephant Walk” in the background.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29776.html