A friend just posted this article about Obama for America v. Husted in Ohio. The friend went on to say how horrible it was that Obama would deny members of the military the right to vote.
So, I patiently explained that the lawsuit is really not about taking three days of early voting away from military voters, but about how it’s been taken away from non-military voters. Was she relieved to have this tidbit of information? Well, no.
There are other folks on Facebook saying similar things. I mean, it’s not nearly as important as chicken sandwiches, but it’s got some people riled up.
So, the issue is that the new Ohio law says that early voting ends on Friday, November 2. However, military voters may submit early voting ballots until Monday, November 5. (The general election is on Tuesday, November 6.) The OFA v. Husted suit says that this violates the equal protection clause by creating two classes of voters. The proposed remedy is to simply allow all voters to cast early voting ballots until Monday. Somehow this gets twisted to denying military voters of three days of voting.
The whole worship of military guys gets my goat anyway. What the hell do they want, a friggin’ cookie?! Go vote. Don’t go vote. Whatever you do, do it before the deadline, whenever it is. Get over it. Damn.
As a former member of the military (8 years Army Infantry) I have to say that the knee-jerk reaction people have to anything involving the military is so damned misguided and really tries my patience. You know what? I don’t think there should be two classes of voters either. And the members of the military get plenty of time to vote, even in Iraq we were constantly reminded of absentee voting and who to get in touch with, and every NCO was instructed on who to send their soldiers to should they have questions (2008). So really, Dopers, don’t worry about the military.
I find the increasing veneration of the military really creepy, from “support our troops” on. I don’t mind the people who are just offering respect to people who work hard under dangerous conditions, or to those who devote their careers to important principles, but a lot of what I see goes beyond that into adulation. I keep thinking that this attitude would be really convenient should anyone ever attempt a coup.
That couldn’t happen, of course: American Exceptionalism means that a coup is impossible, unlike those loser third-world countries.
Google it, and scan. The usual suspects are all there, but the interesting thing is scanning the tag lines, more for what they don’t say than for what they do. There is a preponderance of such wording as “Military Groups Upset About Obama blah blah blah…”
Nicely done, starting with a presumption of neutrality, its those guys, over there, who are upset, we’re just telling you about it. Oh, the people who are upset are military, which means its the military who is upset, probably about some disrespect from dirty hippie peacefreak unpatriotic Dems.
Has there ever been an election when they didn’t trot out this bullshit?
“Uncle Emery has a colorful way of expressing himself, dear. You see, a “cornhole” is like on the farm, its the hole you put the corn in. And a “reacharound” is passing the biscuits at the table, its not nice to refuse to give a reacharound. Now, run along and play. Over at Timmy’s house…”
Elucidator is responding to MEBuckner’s joke that we should quarter the military in people’s houses so they stop worshiping them. Elucidator is merely expressing one likely outcome of a parent having to explain the colorful language military types tend to use to their children.
I’m also thinking the weekly grocery bills for a platoon of Marines would be kind of on the high side. But think of the savings to the taxpayers! We could cut taxes!
I love it. I shall suggest it immediately. We must support our troops! Literally and directly.
My son in law is in the US Army. I love how some people think that our soldiers are these uber-patriotic guys. My SIL is just a grunt doing a job. Some days, his job is intensely scary. Most days, it’s intensely boring. Every two weeks, he cashes his check and supports his wife and kid. He didn’t enlist because of his patriotic fervor. He finished high school with a C average and couldn’t stomach the idea of going to more school. He washed out of EMT training with the local ambulance service. So, it was off to the Army.
Holy fuck is there anything that asshole won’t say or do?
That’s what I hate about Facebook- you get to find out that some of the people that you have vague memories of are flaming right wingers. Kind of robs you of some pleasant memories of your past acquaintances.
A friend of mine posted this crap on FB. The first FB’er who commented on the picture said something like “I’m a Romney supporter and nobody wants Obama out of office more than I do, but this is not true.” Several other people responded similarly, even providing links. Still the majority of the responses were complaining about how Obama hates America and he’s a Keyan Muslim socialist and all that crap. Even when people on their side provided correct information.
That’s Tuchman’s definition of folly right there.
It’s like the Republican candidates won’t tell the truth no matter what, and a lot of their supporters (perhaps a majority) won’t accept the truth no matter how little it hurts them. We are in Heinlien’s Crazy Years.
First of all, there is legislation governing this - The Motor Voter law, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act. It is likely that I missed other legislation in this area.
Anyway, it is the policy of the federal government to facilitate military and overseas voting to the greatest degree possible. Most other early voter and absentee voter issues are left to the states.
I do not see an equal protection issue here, as there are different laws in play here with differing jurisdiction. Moreover, if equal protection was to be applied, a longer voting time may still be required for overseas voters simply because of the added time required to get voting information and ballots to them.
Secondly, given the PR hit the Democrats took in 2000 in Florida when they sought to disqualify military ballots (whether rightly or wrongly) it is likely a good idea for them as a party to carefully consider whether this is a battle that will do them any good.
In 2010, the Obama’s Justice Department sued states to force them to comply with a law requiring that absentee ballots for overseas voters (including troops) be mailed 45 days ahead of the election.
Of course, this is just another example of how Obama hates the military. I’m not sure how that is, of course, but every news item that involves the words “Obama” and “military” is really about the President hating our country, if you just read it in the correct way.