Can The Daily Show do for voter suppression what Colbert has done for Super-PACS?
Leslie SavanOne problem in conveying the dangers of the GOP’s war on voters is its manifold nature. When the public hears about voter suppression (if they do at all; the long, slow slog of stealing elections isn’t quite as MSM-ready as the latest poll or gaffe), sometimes they hear about voter purges or new voter ID laws; other times, it’s new restrictions on early voting or Sunday voting. Or maybe they hear about attempts to limit voter registration drives with killer deadlines, like having to turn in forms within forty-eight hours of being signed. The GOPtopus’s arms are many and confusing.
But here are Jon Stewart and John Oliver pulling it all together, at least in Florida, where voter suppression—and increasingly, the fight against it—has become an art form. If The Daily Show keeps it up, it might even do for voter suppression what Stephen Colbert has done for Super-PACS—make the absurdity and the threat to democracy palpable.
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Leslie SavanLeslie Savan, author of Slam Dunks and No-Brainers and The Sponsored Life, writes for The Nation about media and politics.