The Texas GOP faced a blast of online criticism Friday afternoon for posting a meme declaring, "If you can wait in line for a covid test, you can wait in line to vote."
The meme, which shows a line of people waiting to receive COVID-19 tests on an urban sidewalk, appears to be an attempted slam of voting rights groups' repeated call for Texas to expand voting access rather than limit it based on bogus fraud claims.
If you can wait in line for a covid test, you can wait in line to vote. pic.twitter.com/Y8YrKEspYP
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) January 7, 2022
And in an attempt further own the libs, the party followed up with two more tweets declaring "wow, this made the pronouns in bio people big mad" and "Masks are dumb."
Masks are dumb
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) January 7, 2022
Even though Texas has some of the nation's most restrictive voting laws, the GOP-controlled state legislature rammed through new voting restrictions that stop local elections administrators from allowing innovations such as 24-hour voting and drive-through voting to increase turnout. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also fought court battles to prevent the expansion of voting by mail during the thick of the pandemic.
Little surprise then that Twitter users unleashed a flurry of scorn Friday, calling out the Texas GOP for the tone-deaf meme, posted as a wave of new COVID infections sweeps the state, leaving 9,216 people in the hospital.
Some flamed the party for the poor taste of the meme, others for its faulty logic. Others shared their opinions on the real reason Republican politicians are so eager to limit voting access.
Pretty ballsy of the Texas GOP to run on a “f—k you” platform this year. We’ll see how it works out for them.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 7, 2022
— 🇺🇸ANTIGQP🏴☠️ (@itmustend_) January 7, 2022
“If you can be freezing when you are outside ice fishing, you can be freezing inside your house when our incompetent power grid stops working”
— Attorney-at-Law (@TheGlare_TM) January 7, 2022
— Wendy McRoberts 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🤗 (@wendy_mcroberts) January 7, 2022
Citizens should not have to wait in line for hours to exercise their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO VOTE! pic.twitter.com/A3sc14QLdP
— Rocky Mountain High (@hippotx) January 7, 2022
Translation: "The more people that vote, the less chance we have of winning."
— John Desrocher (@JohnDesrocher1) January 7, 2022
Lol ,"If you put up with us making it hard for you to access life-saving healthcare, you should accept us also making it hard for you to exercise your democratic rights!"
— Taliesin & Evitel (@TaliesinEvitel) January 7, 2022
Not sure this is quite the own you think it is.
In response to that last tweet, we're not sure either.
But, then again, this is the same Texas GOP whose website was down for days following a hack done in protest to the state's near-total ban on abortion. Experts said the lengthy delay likely came down to the party's failure to establish a backup site — a common failsafe used by professional web developers.
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