Too Stupid for Words: NBC News Op-ed Claims Voting for Trump Not Only Racist But Unconstitutional
Posted by Mike LaChance Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 10:00am
Has the dumbest article of 2020 already been written?
It’s still very early in 2020, but when it comes to stupid political columns, we may already have a winner. A recent op-ed published by NBC News suggests that voting for Trump is not only racist and unethical, it violates the Constitution.
The author, Noah Berlatsky, seems to be serious about this if you can believe it:
Trump voters motivated by racism may be violating the Constitution. Can they be stopped?
If the Trump era has taught us anything, it’s that large numbers of white people in the United States are motivated at least in part by racism in the voting booth. Donald Trump ran an openly racist campaign for president, calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, regularly retweeting white supremacists and at least initially balking at repudiating former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Trump made it clear in his campaign that “Make America Great Again” meant that America was greater when white people’s power was more sweeping and more secure. White voters approved of that message by a whopping 58 percent to 37 percent.
Some politicians deny the evidence, no doubt because they don’t want to alienate white voters, including prejudiced ones. Other commentators try to parse whether Trump’s racism will be a winning strategy in 2020. Terry Smith, a visiting professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, offers a different response in his new book, “Whitelash: Unmasking White Grievance at the Ballot Box.” Rather than excuse racist voters or try to figure out how to live with their choices, he argues that racist voting is not just immoral, but illegal. The government, Smith says, has the ability, and the responsibility, to address it.
This sounds radical. But Smith argues that it’s in line with the Constitution and with years of court rulings. For example, Smith points out that racist appeals in union elections are illegal and that an election in which one side uses racist appeals can be invalidated by the National Labor Relations Board.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner provides this enlightening tidbit about the writer:
Byron York
?@ByronYork
To be fair, the author of the NBC racist-voters-violated-Constitution-by-voting-for-Trump piece is a 'comics expert' and 'cultural critic' whose works include 'Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948.' t.co
332
4:56 PM - Jan 17, 2020
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Twitchy has rounded up some responses to the piece:
Eric Spencer@JustEric
The Constitution places limits on government. Private citizens can't do anything unconstitutional ever. t.co
Byron York
?@ByronYork
From NBC News, a commentary piece arguing that voting for Trump is unconstitutional. Discusses legal remedies. 'Censuring' individual voters would be 'difficult.' Nullifying election even harder. Still, other possibilities... ow.ly
259
8:56 AM - Jan 18, 2020
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Mo Mo@molratty
This is a professor of law who apparently doesn't understand the First Amendment or the Sixth Amendment or that free speech rights in labor issues are restricted. t.co
Byron York
?@ByronYork
From NBC News, a commentary piece arguing that voting for Trump is unconstitutional. Discusses legal remedies. 'Censuring' individual voters would be 'difficult.' Nullifying election even harder. Still, other possibilities... ow.ly
149
9:53 AM - Jan 18, 2020
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Mo Mo@molratty
Replying to @molratty
Because the 6th Amendment protects defendants from racism and the NRLB can protect union elections (where free speech can be restricted), Berlatsky extrapolates that being "racist by voting" is unconstitutional and voters can be fined or otherwise punished, despite 1A.
43
10:00 AM - Jan 18, 2020
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Kelly Rae@kellyrae2723
This entire article is filled with falsehoods.. it really burns me that a national news org would publish something like this. Idc who you prefer to vote for, you should not be fed half truths or all out lies by a respected news source...
Get mad people! t.co
Byron York
?@ByronYork
From NBC News, a commentary piece arguing that voting for Trump is unconstitutional. Discusses legal remedies. 'Censuring' individual voters would be 'difficult.' Nullifying election even harder. Still, other possibilities... ow.ly
10
9:15 AM - Jan 18, 2020 · Michigan, USA
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While it’s tempting to just point and laugh, Ace of Spades provides some sobering analysis:
And for those who say “Oh, this is just an opinion piece” —
1, it’s an opinion piece pushed by a billion-dollar corporation. They’ve moved the Overton Window to the point where this now fair grist for consideration.
2, The opinion they’re pushing is an official government apartheid, but with a target class selected by the antifa left.
3, the extremism of their demands is accelerating. Only recently they started agitating to repeal the First Amendment’s right to free speech; that is now in peril, and restricted where it still exists. Now they’re upping the ante to say that the right to vote must also be limited — and preserved only for the right people, who vote the “right way.”
4, the last opinion they pushed — which the “reasonable” fake conservatives told me wasn’t anything to worry about — was the idea that a man could wake up one day and declare himself a woman, and that I would be under legal compulsion to agree with his delusion.
And now that’s a fact of daily life.
These are not just hot takes. These are previews of coming attractions.
The fact that NBC News would publish this piece speaks volumes. The left isn’t trying to hide their most authoritarian ideas anymore, and the media is seemingly happy to play along. |
