Donald Trump and his minions have made a big huff about absentee ballots, arguing that the only ones that should count are the ones done in person. (Naturally, this didn’t stop Ivanka and Jared Kushner from sharing a picture of themselves, smiling as they held up their…absentee ballots.) The implication has been that the majority of those ballots would swing Biden’s way. But, as a new video made by the tag team pair of the Lincoln Project and outspoken Trump critic Mark Hamill, there’s a large portion of the population the president appears to be overlooking. Or simply insulting.
The ad, caught by Raw Story, goes out of its way to remind voters that since, as Hamill’s narrator puts it, “elections have consequences,” that they can help put an end to “tyranny.” Elections are so important, the ad argues, that during the Civil War, legislators made sure that everyone, including soldiers away from home, had a way to vote. “This is how absentee voting began — sent from the bloody battlefield across the nation.”
But now, we’re reminded, that’s under siege. “More than 150 years later, tyranny is looking for a new foothold,” Hamill narrates, as a picture of Trump pops up. He points out that Trump and his team has been trying to discount votes that arrive after November 3 — this despite the United States Postal Service having become incredibly slow under the watch of Postmaster General (and Trump appointee) Louis DeJoy, and despite it being a law to count each and every ballot. “If [Trump] gets his way, many who cast absentee ballots will not have their vote counted.”
Then the ad really turns the knife, showing how Trump is targeting those he speaks of (though not always) fondly. “This will deny thousands of troops overseas of their most sacred right,” Hamill says, “stripping the men and women of our military of the very freedoms they served and sacrificed to defend.
“Nothing is more important than counting every vote, especially those that are serving our country,” Hamill concludes. “Suppressing any vote is un-American.”
This is (allegedly!) the final ad put forth by the Lincoln Project, group of turncoat Republicans who’ve made it their mission to unseat the man who took over their party, before the election. If so, the combined power of one of Star Wars most iconic players (and arguably the best Joker) and the appeal to the military may make it a fine final push.
You can watch the PSA in the video above.
(Via Raw Story)