One thing about Republicans, they really don’t know how to debate any issue in a way that doesn’t center the Democrat vs. Republican paradigm. To let them tell it, everything begins and ends with those pesky Dems—the Black Lives Matter movement, calls for police reform, the Critical Race Theory extravaganza that lives exclusively in the right-winger imagination—all of it.
So, it should surprise no one that GOPropagandists are about to air ads during Major League Baseball’s All-Star activities that pretend Democrats are unilaterally to blame for MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver—which only happened because Georgia Republicans passed voter suppression legislation—not because the new laws are needed, but because GOPoor losers couldn’t take their 2020 election L lying down.
From CBS News:
Both the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican campaign arm will be airing attack ads Monday and Tuesday, during Major League Baseball’s All-Star activities.
The ads blame Democrats for the economic costs for Georgia stemming from by the MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver, after an changes to Georgia’s election laws
The Cobb County Travel and Tourism Bureau estimated in April that the move cost Atlanta $100 million in lost revenue, and would have been “a big boost” to local businesses after the COVID-19 pandemic. Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, both Democrats, estimated Denver would see $100 million in revenue from hosting the MLB All-Star game.
“This was supposed to be Atlanta’s night, but we were robbed. Democrats stole our All-Star game to push their divisive political agenda,” Reverend and former Republican Georgia State Representative Melvin Everson says in the RNC ad. The RNC’s seven-figure buy will run nationwide during the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
For now, let’s set aside the sheer hypocrisy of Republicans accusing anyone of pushing a “divisive political agenda” while using “stop the steal” propaganda to justify passing voting legislation that serves no other purpose but to help the GOP win again. I’m honestly more irritated by the fact that Republicans are giving Democrats credit for everything.
Do these people have any idea how long Black people and voting rights activists who are not career politicians for either party have been talking about racist voting laws? Do they think we at The Root are just having a little fun with words when we publish stories exposing Gov. Brian Kemp as the governor of making Black votes disappear?
GOPunks, ARE WE A JOKE TO YOU???
Anyway, the “I know you’re divisive, but what am I?” committee will specifically be targeting Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), who is up for reelection next year.
“The MLB All-Star Game will be bittersweet for baseball fans in Georgia as they watch a game played in a packed stadium in Denver instead of Atlanta, where it should be,” NRSC Chairman and Florida Sen. Rick Scott said in a statement. “Sadly, it was their very own Senator who helped run the All-Star Game and $100 million out of Atlanta.”
For the record: MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game had virtually nothing to do with the Democratic Party. Of course, Democrats are going to denounce voting laws that are purported to be about securing elections but are really just tools to create barriers between voters and the polls. Democrats have a pretty big dog in that race, but that doesn’t make the party responsible for what a sports league it doesn’t own decides to do in its show of solidarity with voting rights.
But Republicans are either too cowardly or too concerned with pushing their own “divisive political agenda” to go after the actual groups and athletes who helped make MLB’s big move happen.
More from CBS:
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the decision to move the All-Star game in April, after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Manfred wrote in a statement.
There you have it, folks—Black athletes speak on their own behalf and Republicans are basically like: “Nah, the Dems must have told them to say that shit.”
Not only did Warnock have zero to do with the MLB’s decision, but he responded to the league’s announcement with a press release in which he said it was his “hope that businesses, athletes, and entertainers can protest this law not by leaving Georgia but by coming here and fighting voter suppression head on, and hand-in-hand with the community.”
Maybe more people would vote Republican if the party’s lies weren’t so damn transparent. This shit is just pitiful.