Cojones
In a former life, I used to pound the pavement, knocking on doors on hot sultry Texas afternoons with a voter list prepared by our local paid political hack … er … political consultant. The list guaranteed that we would not be “preaching to the choir,” nor would we be talking to people who were “unavailable to persuasion.” In other words, no “triple D Democrats” and no voters from the Dark Side.
It kept you on your toes.
On one memorable occasion, I knocked on a door that was opened by a big burly gentleman with no neck to speak of, and I asked to talk to his wife, whose name was on my list – but not his. He took one look at my lapel regalia – aka campaign buttons – and asked why I wanted to talk to her.
I immediately saw my mistake and told him that I had the wrong address.
“I think you DO,” he answered to my retreating back.
I might have blown his wife’s cover as a closet Democrat anyway, and for that, I was and am truly sorry.
But this year, women as closet Democrats have their own campaign spokesperson: Julia Roberts.
“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know,” she says, in a recently released TV ad.
It’s a secret ballot. You can vote for anyone and anything, and the old man doesn’t need to know about it.
This naturally unleashed a furious male MAGA backlash. How dare they tell women to lie to their husbands! Encouraging infidelity is not strictly OK.
The icing on the cake is who chose to loudly object: Newt Gingrich.
Newt, you will recall, has had a checkered past vis-a-vis his marriages.
Three of them.
But that didn’t stop ol’ Newt from saying this:
“For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption. How do you run a country where you’re walking around saying ‘wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives’?”
Indeed.
Gingrich divorced his first wife after her cancer surgery and his second wife while having an affair with his soon-to-be third wife, Callista.
Having the cojones to criticize Democrats for suggesting that wives should lie to their husbands about who they voted for, when he himself felt the need to lie to his wives to cover his infidelities is a little rich.
But to Newt, it’s just another day in politics.
She didn’t say to lie, she just said you don’t have to say anything, which is a time-honored tactic for marital peace…especially on the distaff side..
1How did magats run a country where TFG lied about everything to everyone, Snootie? Perhaps IOKIYAR?
2Newt the Pewt got the Bewt from his speakership decades ago because he was too big a swine for even the Republicans of that era. The guy who literally wrote the book on negative campaigning has no right to tell anyone else what they should be doing in an election.
3This advice might be fine for in-person voting at the polling place, but it doesn’t work for mail-in ballots. I can well imagine MAGA type husbands filling out the ballots for their wives.
Unfortunately I don’t know what can be done about that.
4The loud and constant badgering, nonstop right wing noise machine, which is controlled by about 75% MSM, lives by their most prized axiom … ‘Lie and Blame the Democrats’.
5While I fully support telling women they don’t have to vote the same way as their husbands or partners, my concern is we should not alert the MAGAs about this. I’ll bet that most of them will insist on mail-in ballots for future elections, so they can hover over and force wives to vote they way their husbands demand.
It’s the one shortcoming of ballots by mail. I’ve known cases where the husband simply filled in both ballots and signed the wife’s signature on one. It’s illegal, but if the woman is faced with a no-neck bully like Half Empty describes, she may value her physical well-being or life too much to complain.
6When I was in line to vote early here in Gillespie County, an old guy with a cane (and obvious Parkinson’s) came up to me and asked me if this was the line. I said yes, and he promptly got in front of me. He turned, smiled, and said “I hope you’re voting the right way.” His wife rushed in and apologized and said “We’re not going there!”
Later, I thought I should have said “I’m voting for the right woman” but maybe I’d be accused of electioneering at the polls.
7In fall of 2008 I was visiting my folks. Dad was declining and I usually went 2 or 3 times a year. I planned to leave late afternoon on election day so I wouldn’t be there for results. It was a tense visit, with my mom and brother. Dad, well, his philosophy at that point in his life was don’t make waves. I took them to the polling place down the street, it was too far for him to walk. When they registered, mom grabbed both ballots and insisted that she accompany Dad into the booth to mark them (I had offered to take him). I truly believe he would have voted differently if he was able. I was connecting in SLC when a plane load of Californians came out of the gate cheering. It would be a long 8 years of family visits. Dad didn’t make it to 2012, Mom is 97 and I swear she is hanging on to vote for TFG again. Good thing she is in MA and not a swing state.
8One man.
9Two votes.
Going OT to extend the Bund topic:
A most interesting article about American Jewish groups and various mobsters of the time teaming up to harass the rising German American Bund of the 1930s. Including how they disrupted the 1939 Bund rally at Madison Square Garden. :
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/2/2279761/-How-Meyer-Lansky-organized-Jewish-mobsters-to-fight-the-Nazis-who-held-the-1939-MSG-rally
“Many have noted the striking similarities between Donald Trump’s racist and hate-filled rally last Sunday at Madison Square Garden and a 1939 pro-Nazi rally at the old Garden. But what’s missing from the numerous news stories is the historical context.
10…”
I can’t help but think that we’re going to see a lot more of people showing up to vote that aren’t registered. Because as hard as it might be to believe, I think there’s a helluva lot of folks who might not have been exactly undecided, but disengaged. And All of a sudden it’s time to bust a move, voting-wise. But it’s too late.
11Sandridge @ 10
I believe I referred to the Jewish provocateurs in one of my comments.
What I had not mentioned was the uniformed SA in the hall. There’s an often-seen film of them beating up a Jew who rushed the stage.
I think the anti-nazis considered that clip a strong propaganda victory.
All that is why I objected to attempts to link trump’s rally to the Bund rally.
12P.P. @ 11 Not in Virginia, which has same-day registration. I don’t know if any other places do.
Historic note: Despite all the pearl-clutching about vote hijinks, things used to be much, much worse. When I was starting out in newspapering in the late ’60s, it was commonly acknowledged that in Southside Virginia, votes could be bought openly for $5 or a pint of hooch. I do not recall any prosecutions.
In Georgia in the 1890s, there were at least a dozen election killings, and ballot boxes were stolen and burned.
The recent best-seller ‘Wilmington’s Lie’ recounts the bloody coup of 1898 and the shameful part played by the New & Observer.
In the electoral violence of 1876 in South Carolina, my grandfather, who was 16, stood by with rifles loaded with his father and cousins against nightriders.
And then there was the Battle of Athens. Many years later, I met the son of the notorious Sheriff Mansfield, who was quite proud of his father. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_%281946%29
That’s just from my neck of the woods.
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