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So much for informed voters:

http://www.diversityinc.com/news/wilson-white-candidate-wins-texas-election-by-pretending-hes-black/

Let's not criticize the "uninformed" voters too much when we're talking about a case of someone being intentionally deceptive.

 Peregrine wrote:
Let's not criticize the "uninformed" voters too much when we're talking about a case of someone being intentionally deceptive.

You are joking, right? Did not one even look at this guy, see he was whiter than snow and tell the others? Did no one go to listen to this guy?

 Peregrine wrote:
Let's not criticize the "uninformed" voters too much when we're talking about a case of someone being intentionally deceptive.

Intentionally deceptive only in regards to his skin color. correct? If that's the case then it shouldn't have affected the politics one bit, right?

It's a Community College election. Of course it's low information. Honestly I'm a little surprised they got more than 26 people to vote.

 sebster wrote:
It's a Community College election. Of course it's low information. Honestly I'm a little surprised they got more than 26 people to vote.

One would think, though, that those who cared enough to vote in an obscure election would bother to know the candidates.

Maybe he portrayed himself black on purpose? Maybe he felt it was a ethnic group he can relate to? Maybe on his off time he writes rap lyrics. We had Vanilla Ice and now Eminem so why should we be alarmed. Actually on second thought. I thought college was all booze, alcohol, partying, and bar's with massive study grinds, scrounging for college tuitions, room and board, occasional "I never inhaled though" antics. For the life of me I cannot remember the all female college in Raleigh a lot of us from the 82nd prowled.

Another flier proudly announced his endorsement by Ron Wilson, suggesting a Black former state legislator who is well known in the area. Beneath the endorsement announcement, a disclaimer is printed: “Ron Wilson and Dave Wilson are cousins,” it reads. Except the Ron Wilson that Dave Wilson is talking about is not that Ron Wilson, who suffered a stroke in 2009 that left him barely able to speak and may never have heard of Dave Wilson.
Dave Wilson does indeed have a cousin named Ron Wilson, and this Ron Wilson did endorse Dave Wilson’s campaign … from Iowa, where he lives. “He’s a nice cousin,” Wilson says, suppressing a laugh. “We played baseball in high school together. And he’s endorsed me.”

On the way to work, I saw a bald eagle swoop down over my car, with one mighty talon clenching an AR-15, and the other hefting a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and I thought that would be the most American thing I would see all day. Then I read that quote.

Reminds me of these sorts of con interviews.

I wonder if the one supporter is still applauding Obamacare...

cadbren wrote:
Reminds me of these sorts of con interviews.

Listening to those people backtrack was hilarious.

I got a my current job because they thought I was black...

I was sent to EO/EOA school due to my commander thinking I was Hispanic. Imagine my surprise when I was called out in formation to tell my commander I was Asian American because he did not believe my First Sargent when he said otherwise. Asked if I spoke Thai. Yes. Next thing I'm going to Bangkok Thailand for Cobra Gold exercises as a translator.

Does he speak jive?

No, but he's married to an old lady who does

Hi-five, my brother from the land down under.

Relapse wrote:
One would think, though, that those who cared enough to vote in an obscure election would bother to know the candidates.

Having worked in local government, I wouldn't think that for one second

 sebster wrote:

Relapse wrote:
One would think, though, that those who cared enough to vote in an obscure election would bother to know the candidates.

Having worked in local government, I wouldn't think that for one second

Isn't a community college like a university? If so they might offer food vouchers for people who vote. My uni does. I got a free meal every year for ticking a box, and the guy I voted for could have been pretending to be black and it wouldn't have mattered in the least.

 sebster wrote:

Relapse wrote:
One would think, though, that those who cared enough to vote in an obscure election would bother to know the candidates.

Having worked in local government, I wouldn't think that for one second

That explains how some of these clowns get elected the world over then. If people let themselves get sucked into voting for a name on a paper and a picture, they deserve what they get.

Relapse wrote:
That explains how some of these clowns get elected the world over then. If people let themselves get sucked into voting for a name on a paper and a picture, they deserve what they get.

They deserve what they get. Unforunately the rest of us also get what they get.

Too depressingly true, Sebster.

How did the recount go? Or did that not happen yet?

This is one of those stories where it seems everyone loses. The voters look like idiots for not doing a modicum of research on who they were voting for. The candidate is an donkey-cave for stopping to such deception and dishonesty. The rest of us have to read about it and shake our heads.

So race is an important factor in who people will vote for i hear you say?

Or maybe people didnt care what he looked like and voted for him based on what he said he would do if elected?

 SilverMK2 wrote:
So race is an important factor in who people will vote for i hear you say?

Or maybe people didnt care what he looked like and voted for him based on what he said he would do if elected?

Um. Clearly it is.

Nowhere in that article does it mention people voting for him because they thought he was black though - it talks about him obscuring his ethnicity but did not even attempt to present that people voted for him because they actually thought he was black. The other guy even sent out fliers with his face on it saying 'look at this evil white dude'.

 Jihadin wrote:
Maybe he portrayed himself black on purpose? Maybe he felt it was a ethnic group he can relate to? Maybe on his off time he writes rap lyrics. We had Vanilla Ice and now Eminem so why should we be alarmed. Actually on second thought. I thought college was all booze, alcohol, partying, and bar's with massive study grinds, scrounging for college tuitions, room and board, occasional "I never inhaled though" antics. For the life of me I cannot remember the all female college in Raleigh a lot of us from the 82nd prowled.

Maybe he gets called by his "real" name... sorta like this:





Kinda makes sense if you think about it... I mean, if people see Aaron, and they're like ohh hey, I have Biology with A.A. Ron, imma vote for him, it really makes things fit in place, i think.

 sebster wrote:

Relapse wrote:
One would think, though, that those who cared enough to vote in an obscure election would bother to know the candidates.

Having worked in local government, I wouldn't think that for one second

We recently had our local elections, I think about 30% of eligible voters voted and that's for mayor, city council and health board. Knowledge of the candidates was pretty much a single brochure with a paragraph about each and a picture. The last is helpful actually, when you know nothing about a candidate, voting for them based on looks can be the deciding factor. The local health board elections are a little more tricky because they don't include pictures, but as the average person has no idea what the local health board does then voting's going to be fairly random anyway.

I think if democracy were to be replaced by a dictatorship overnight with no press release, the average person wouldn't notice and probably wouldn't care.

I never vote for anything. That way whenever the people elected do something dumb I have a 100% chance to be able to say "don't blame me, I never voted for them"

That said I kind of feel like democracy as a system is like trying to turn 10 lbs of McDonalds hamburger into an 8 oz prime rib anyway. The real reason I don't vote is because I can't be bothered to do the research and keep 100% informed on every election I vote in, and anything less would be a disservice.

 dementedwombat wrote:
I never vote for anything. That way whenever the people elected do something dumb I have a 100% chance to be able to say "don't blame me, I never voted for them"

That said I kind of feel like democracy as a system is like trying to turn 10 lbs of McDonalds hamburger into an 8 oz prime rib anyway. The real reason I don't vote is because I can't be bothered to do the research and keep 100% informed on every election I vote in, and anything less would be a disservice.

I really hope this is a troll post.

On topic, ideally nobody should give a gal if the guy implied he was black (because lets face it, he did everything short of wearing blackface to imply it) because honestly race should have 0 indication about who gets voted in. There are people who voted for Obama purely based on his skin color who later found out they didn't agree with his views, and there are plenty out there who voted for guys like McCain just because he had the "safe, typical white guy" look. We have people wanting to vote for Hillary and Palin almost entirely due to them being women, etc.

If we really wanted to fix this problem, come voting day candidates would merely be listed as "Candidate A", "Candidate B", and so forth. Each candidate in the running gets a brief explanation regarding his platform and that's it. No picture, no name and DEFINITELY not which party they belong to. It would do a good deal to help. Heck, it would have helped me the first time I voted. I was fresh out of high school and all I heard was how evil Republicans are, so I voted for Obama with 0 knowledge of what he stood for. Honestly if I could go back, I don't really know if I would have voted for McCain either, since I don't really like the Republicans way of doing things, but at least I would have been better informed. It might even help independent parties get people elected as well, since it would no longer be "well, I like this guy, but its a waste to vote for him because he's a third party".

Of course, all those reasons are exactly why that system will NEVER be implemented in the USA, because both major parties would have a conniption fit the moment they realized their bipartisan system would be threatened

But honestly, it shows just how screwed up the voter base is in the first place.