Talk of a "blue wave," as in Democrats taking back control of both the House and the Senate after the midterm elections, has been consistently thrown around by pundits, strategists and pollsters as a real possibility. But not so fast, Samantha Bee warned on Wednesday night's episode of "Full Frontal."
"We're 55 days from the midterm elections!" the TBS late-host cheered. But Bee joked, "There's no guarantee the Democrats could successfully take back a shopping cart. Blue wave or no blue wave, American voters mostly agree with Democrats. Ninety-seven percent of Americans want some form of gun control. Sixty-two percent of Americans want the government to protect the environment better. Seventy-five percent of Americans say immigration is a good thing, and 100 percent of Americans believe that hot dogs belong in the crust of pizzas. And, if the Italians don't like it, they can suck it."
As Bee reminded viewers, even given all this support for liberal policies, the Republicans currently control everything, from the presidency to Congress. "Republicans have put a lot of strategies in place to stay in power, even when they're in the minority," Bee said. "Like voter suppression."
"Full Frontal" then played a CBS broadcast, which reported on a story from Georgia County, Georgia where election officials were voting on a proposal to close seven of its nine polling places in predominantly black districts.
"They tried to close down seven of nine polling places?" Bee questioned. "The only reason they didn't close down the other two is because they were located inside a Jimmy Buffett concert, where black people could never find them."
"Gee, I wonder why they wanted to close polling places in a predominantly black county? Couldn't be to prevent the election of America's first black woman governor, could it?" Bee continued, referring to Democrat Stacey Abrams, who — if she wins the gubernatorial election in November — would make history.
Ultimately, the proposal did not pass, and the polling places will stay open. However, in many other cases, the courts get to decide. The GOP has not just been undercutting former President Barack Obama and nominating justices to the Supreme Court, "but they've been doing that at every level of the judicial system," Bee said. "Republicans in the Senate blocked so many of Obama's judicial nominees that they created 107 big, juicy holes for Donald Trump to fill. The nausea you're experiencing from hearing me say 'big, juicy holes for Donald Trump to fill' is exactly how you should feel, because stacking the courts with conservatives is deeply ominous for voting rights."
The Supreme Court has ruled on several voting rights cases this year, including recently upholding Ohio's voter purge system, which literally allows the state to purge its rolls of inactive voters. The five conservative-leaning justices all supported the measure.
Yet, these tactics, are second in line, Bee said. "The main reason why Republicans don't need anyone to agree with them to win elections is gerrymandering," she added, referring to the practice of redrawing district lines to benefit one party. "Republicans crammed as many Democrats as possible into as few districts as possible, locking in GOP majorities for close to a decade."
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