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Early Voting Is Bad, Montana Edition

Greg Gianforte
May 25, 2017

Of all the news I expected to break last night, "Republican GOP Candidate Assaults Reporter" was not up there. But, well, here we are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMy3NDod_L4

Of course, when I suggested that it was Probably A Bad Thing for an American candidate for public office to go around assaulting people who ask him questions, Twitter informed me that, Actually, This Was Just The Liberal Media Making Stuff Up Again, SMDH. I guess Fox News didn't get the memo:

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, "I'm sick and tired of this!"

Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names. In shock, we did not answer. Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. At that point, I told him and Scanlon, who was now present, that we needed a moment. The men then left.

The Weekly Standard also seems unaware that this is a Sorosian conspiracy, highlighting the similarities to the time John McCormack was treated poorly by a Martha Coakley campaign staffer:

Two, the Gianforte campaign's lies about Jacobs are even worse than Gianforte's physical attack on Jacobs. Lying about anyone is wrong, but a journalist's livelihood depends on his reputation for honest and accurate reporting. My biggest concern after the Coakley incident—which occurred a few months after another campaign called the cops on me for asking questions (persistently but politely!) and then lied about my behavior—was that the Coakley campaign would spin the story, and some people wouldn't believe me. It was quite a relief that there was videotape to confirm the accuracy of my reporting.

After it became clear that the assault happened, the good people of Conservative Twitter were happy to inform me that this was either good because the librul media has it coming or it doesn't matter because no one gets angry when conservatives are attacked. So, you know, nothing to see here, move along, oh look a squirrel, pull the lever for the GOP candidate!

Anyway. I'm entirely sympathetic to Gianforte's frustration with reporters; lord knows I've wanted to shriek "I'm sick and tired of you guys!" while choke-slamming a writer into a table hundreds—nay, thousands!—of times. You try dealing with people who say "hey boss, I filed" and then when you look for their story you see that they forgot to put the file where it's supposed to be and you can't get in touch with them because they've gone outside for a smoke—a trip that takes about 10 minutes, since, as you know, The Washington Free Beacon rests atop a majestic skyscraper many floors above local trade publication THE POLITICO. Just sitting there, the frustration mounting, the clicks slipping away because a writer doesn't know how to use Dropbox like a competent grade school student—yeah, I get it man. That must have felt good.

But it's still wrong! You can't just go around hitting people who displease you; this is, like, literally the first thing children learn in preschool. Use your goddamn words.

Too bad it doesn't matter if this has changed the minds of the 70 percent of people who are going to vote by mail in Montana!

https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/867728606285398017

Now, as Harry Enten notes, there's an open question as to whether or not early voting has anything other than a minimal effect. And you should take my suggestion that we should get rid of early voting because no one knows what will happen in the closing days of a race with a grain of salt since I support just about anything that makes it harder to vote, given that I believe fewer people should vote because most people are too ignorant to be trusted with the franchise. But common sense suggests that, hey, at the very least there are some folks who might decide to sit this one out altogether rather than vote for the physically violent nutcase or the nudist colony's favorite singer. Sure, there are those who can rationalize just about any act of lunacy from a candidate that has their preferred party affiliation, because lol nothing matters. That being said, an actual act of physical violence might—just might!—be enough to tip a race away from a person utterly lacking in self-control, especially when the race is likely to be extremely close.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you haven't already cast a ballot then you should vote for Evan McMullin in Montana. That worked out so well last time.