What's the matter with South Carolina?

[Legion Troll]

What’s the matter with South Carolina?

With the state’s Republican presidential primary scheduled for Saturday, there have been reports of negative robocalls from mysterious groups and word of push polls—surveys that are ostensibly neutral but in fact lead voters to a particular opinion. Charleston’s Post and Courier has launched a website to keep track of “questionable campaign activity.”

So far, the reports range from stolen yard signs to a robocall asking “how [the respondent] felt about the fact that Trump is trying to stop veterans from running businesses in New York City because they are eyesores.”

After all, the state has a reputation as home of some of America’s most underhanded political tricks.

“Ask a veteran of South Carolina politics to name the ugliest chapter in his state’s low-down and dirty political history and he may be slow to answer,” Michael Crowley noted. “Not because he’s offended, but because there are so many acts of dark magic to choose from.”

The examples listed by Crowley were many: the whisper campaign that alleged that John McCain’s adopted daughter, who is from Bangladesh, was in fact his own illegitimate African-American child; the Mormon-themed greeting cards that purported to be from Mitt Romney; the accusations that gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley had an affair.

“More-seasoned veterans might reach back to the phone calls pointedly ‘asking’ voters’ opinions about the faith of a Jewish candidate for Congress,” Crowley continued. “Or the curious case of the reporter who asked a Democratic congressional candidate about his history of ‘psychotic treatment.'”

Both of those two early examples were linked, to varying degrees, to Lee Atwater, a political operative who helped turn South Carolina, his home state, into the most reliably Republican place in the country.

Atwater, who died after having said that he regretted some of his tactics, was perhaps most associated with the ads that linked Michael Dukakis to rapist Willie Horton.

That Atwater was from South Carolina was, by many accounts, a crucial part of the state’s becoming a testing ground for negative politics.




http://time.com/4219814/south-carolina-primary-dirty-politics/

 

[Callinectes]

It's why I don't vote in primaries. Especially in this one, where even the stupidest republican's pet salamander would make a better president than either of those two idiot democrats.

 

[Legion Troll]

A last minute robocall released by pro-Ted Cruz forces paints Trump as a carpetbagger who does not understand their way of life.

Trump currently boasts a sizeable lead in every poll and is expected to trounce his opponents in the Palmetto State primary, but candidates like Cruz can still hope to narrow the gap.

Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee released a pre-recorded message that all but accuses Trump of attempting to burn through Dixie like General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Alluding to the 2015 fight that brought down the Confederate flag, the caller says, “People like Donald Trump are always butting their noses into other people’s business.”

“People like Trump,” of course meaning people with “New York values” who won’t fight for the brand social conservatism one might find in places like Rock Hill or Bethune.

The downing of the Confederate flag remains a point of tension for many who believe it embodies their heritage and who reject the notion that it has racial implications.

“Trump talks about our flag like it’s a social disease,” the voice goes on to say.

The pro-Cruz PAC wants South Carolinians to know that Trump isn’t on their side and that he agreed with removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/19/confederate-cavalry-robocalls-for-cruz.html