A few weeks ago, I bought a Bush/Cheney t-shirt from a street vendor in downtown D.C. As I was riding my bike home that day, wearing the shirt, I got several dirty looks. One young woman stuck her tongue out at me as she rode by. A scrawny, butchy-looking female biker made a big show of shaking her head in disgust as she passed.
This is the kind of immature resentment I expect from Democrats these days. I've attempted to engage Bush-haters in conversation, and they always start with the hyperbole: "He's a fanatic, he lies, he is the WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY" -- you know the tiresome song. Then when I ask them for evidence to back up these statements, one of two things happens:
1) They back off, and admit that they have policy disagreements with the Bush administration, but maybe the president isn't quite the Antichrist; or
2) They get freaked out and continue the diatribe, which often includes a rant against me personally for being a brainwashed right-wing snakehandling freak. (In reply, I point out that I have never handled snakes.) If they do have any "facts," they almost invariably include references to Halliburton and dodging the draft. They also make wild, demonstrably untrue claims, such as that the country is in a recession.
Now, let me say that not all Democrats are Bush-haters, and not all of them have gone off their rockers. Joe Lieberman, for example. Or...um...my two Democrat friends named Brian. And...let's see...Zell Miller! The list gets a little thin after that.
Many Democrats are suffering from Moore's Disease, a new viral infection that spreads from intimate contact with an infected person, from reading The Nation, or from watching that giant turd's movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." People whose political immune system has been compromised by attending a liberal university are especially susceptible to Moore's Disease.
The malady makes you do strange things that cause non-infected people to avert their eyes. Take Algore, for example. He used to be an intelligent man without an original thought in his wooden head. Now he reads weirdo Web sites and repeats their "ideas" without attribution:
I'm convinced that most of the president's frequent departures from fact-based analysis have much more to do with right-wing political and economic ideology than with the Bible....So the president is stupid ("departures from fact-based analysis") and evil ("love of power"). Haven't heard those critiques before, have we? If anyone can explain what "body language of religion" means, please tell us in the comment box. Does President Bush genuflect before boarding Air Force One?It is love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of this presidency....
Truly, President Bush has stolen the symbolism and body language of religion and used it to disguise the most radical effort in American history to take what rightfully belongs to the American people and give as much of it as possible to the already wealthy and privileged.
Algore is entering the advanced stages of MD, where your body begins to bloat like the giant turd himself. When you see him wearing a baseball cap in public and he grows that weenie beard again, you will know he has succumbed to the disease.
MD sufferers even infest my suburban neighborhood. For three weeks or so, we've had a Bush/Cheney sign in our yard. On Sunday, I discovered it was stolen. Coincidently, that morning the Washington Post ran a story called "The Great Divide," with a photo of a Kensington, Maryland woman whose Kerry/Edwards yard sign was stolen.
Nor is it a shock to Carolyn Roth and her husband Ira Chaleff, a management consultant, that their prosperous Kensington neighborhood just outside the Capital Beltway in Montgomery County votes Democratic.In place of the stolen sign, she put another sign reading, "IN 2000 THEY STOLE THE ELECTION. NOW THEY STOLE MY KERRY SIGN." Note the paranoid use of the word "they." Also, look at the lettering and keep in mind she calls herself an "artist.""We're open-minded and thoughtful people," says Roth, a 54-year-old special education tutor and artist. She drives a Volvo station wagon with a "Peace" bumper sticker in three languages. "It's probably easier to believe what you hear in church and to believe what your leaders are telling you. But I don't understand how anyone who is thinking can support this administration."
I'm not saying she deserved to have her yard sign stolen because she is a pretentious, arrogant elitist. What irks me about the article, aside from her haughty dismissal of religious believers and Republican voters, is that the sign-stealing and intimidation is coming mostly from Democrats, as David Frum alludes here.
Republican campaign headquarters have been shot at, and union thugs have broken into the offices and harassed the staff. Remember the photo of the chubby union thug tearing up that little girl's Bush sign? That guy was a Kerry supporter.
If I met the Bush supporter (assuming that it was a Bush supporter) who tore up Carolyn Roth's sign, and he was boasting about it, I'd tell him he was wrong and he ought to return them. I don't get the impression that the MD sufferers would say the same thing to the bum who stole my yard sign, because they've bought into the idea that President Bush is uniquely evil, and therefore extraordinary means are justified.
More ominously, the subtext of these actions -- trespassing, petty theft, physical intimidation, verbal abuse -- is that you have no right to express your opinion at all. This has been a standard tactic of the Left for decades.
Someday, I'll write about my college experiences with the friendly left-wing champions of tolerance who smeared my name in print, insulted my girlfriend (now wife) for dating me until she was on the verge of tears, and threw away stacks of the conservative student magazine I edited. However, right now I am going to put up a sign that says "A DEMOCRAT THIEF STOLE MY OTHER BUSH/CHENEY SIGN."
In this election we are seeing a level of campaign violence and intimidation, vote fraud and judicial interference in electoral processes on an unprecedented scale. We can expect, if the election is close, a comprehensive campaign by Democrat lawyers to steal the election in the courts. The MSM and other secular-left dominated institutions do longer disguise their biases.
This alone is one reason to vote Republican down the line excluding anyone without a RTL endorsement.
Why is the secular left turning violent? It is simply because their dominance of American institutions is threatened by the democatic process for the first time in over 30 years.
Not a very successful thief. I drive through Kensington every day and there are hundreds of Kerry signs and not a single Bush sign.
In my Cincinnati neighborhood, hundreds of Bush-Cheney yard signs have been stolen (including mine) and last night my car, which is emblazoned with a large "W" bumper magnet, was egged.
A friend who is a local Republican party leader said it happens year after year. She counsels people not to place their yard signs outside until the eve of the election.
When I called the police to complain this morning, the answering officer informed me twice in a 45 second conversation that "it's happening on both sides." I told him he leaves no doubt about who he's voting for.
Rich, I understand your friend's concern, but I joined the Marine Corps to defend our country and her freedoms. I'll be damned before I let some sneaky little thief deny my constitutional right to speak out in favor of the candidate I support.
Eric,
I have my new sign hung in the picture window in the front of my house. Should Democrats choose to throw eggs at it, they may learn I'm a light sleeper ...
And thanks for your service.
Good deal, Rich -- I hope your sign influences people. As for catching miscreants, I've been thinking about getting a paintball gun. My street is mostly straight, and even though there are a lot of kids on it, many drivers insist on seeing how fast they can go before they get to the end of it. If I could splatter a sign thief, that's great also, but it would be nice to nail a few speeders, too.
Regarding the whole speeders thing, I lived on a street similar to yours with a government school at the end of it. We cajoled the cops to set up a speed trap one afternoon and they nailed dozens of speeders, including a school bus driver (in the bus) going 17 miles per hour over the limit.
We tried speed bumps, but unless you have a congressman living on your street, you're not likely to clear the hurdles set up by city government.
One friend suggested leaving a two-by-four to the side of the street so that speeders will slow down to avoid hitting it. I never did it, but it sounded plausible.
In my current neighborhood, one mom does the same thing with a portable "Children at Play" sign, and it seems to help.