Mailers targeting voters in South Carolina hit Biden on a proposed menthol cigarette ban. The group behind it plans to deploy the issue in swing states next.
  • ctkatz@lemmy.ml
    53·
    4 months ago

    wow, they’re really got the pulse of black america by focusing on the hot button issues like checks notes the price of menthol cigarettes.

    say nothing about improving education, making going to the doctor more affordable, and the overwhelming targeting by police in black areas.

    cigarettes.

    are they going to do something about making malt liquor more available?

    tell me you don’t have a clue about black america issues without telling me you don’t have a clue about black america issues.

    • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
      8·
      4 months ago

      say nothing about improving education, making going to the doctor more affordable, and the overwhelming targeting by police in black areas.

      But they don’t want them to be educated or healthier. They want them stupid, fat, and poor so they don’t fight back. It was and new will be about trying to win them over by helping them.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
    281·
    4 months ago

    If conservative group need cheap disinformation tricks to suppress black vote in order to win South Carolina, repubes have already lost the plot. Bigly.

    • dudinax@programming.dev
      6·
      4 months ago

      Au contrare, Republicans never leave a rat un-fucked. This is just one among many methods they’ve been using for years to suppress southern black votes.

    • Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee
      4·
      4 months ago

      Serious question. When was the last time republicans had a good grasp on “the plot”? That is to say, when was the last time these people exhibited at least a modicum of actual governance?

      Was it around the beginning of Obama’s second term when they all went off the rails obstructionist and party-before-country?

      Those were the days when Romney was considered the looney tune of the GOP, now he’s the one talking sense. And his stance hasn’t really changed.

      That was over 10 years ago… Have republicans really not had the plot in over a decade?

  • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    25·
    4 months ago

    They’re targeting black voters in S. Carolina over a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. Setting aside that the state is almost certainly going red regardless, I doubt this will be a terribly effective strategy with anyone but the oldest black voters. Even then, it seems like a stretch.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
    7·
    4 months ago

    A conservative group funded by anonymous donors sent mailers to approximately 75,000 Democratic primary voters in South Carolina, a heavily Black electorate, ahead of the Feb. 3 primary there, criticizing Biden over his administration’s push to ban menthol cigarettes. Black smokers are more likely to use menthol cigarettes, according to research cited by the FDA, and the potential ban has divided civil rights groups.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    415·
    4 months ago

    How many black people in South Carolina even smoke?

    Is this, yet again, an article that you happen to agree with rather than one that is newsworthy?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        22·
        4 months ago

        Not if they only affect a tiny number of voters. Which is why I’ve been asking how many voters this will affect, which apparently is a really unfair question for some reason.

        Doesn’t it make a difference whether this has an effect on 3 people or 300,000 people?

    • Cort@lemmy.world
      3·
      4 months ago

      Fwiw, the rough numbers say about 600k smokers in the state, and a little more than 25% of the state population is black. If all things were equal, it would be about 150,000 black smokers in South Carolina