I pose this question to all of our conservative and Republican readers and commenters. How can you do it? I am going to tell you two stories, and then I am going to ask you a further question.
From the Asheville, NC Citizen Times:
A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.
“It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” Johnson said.
This was a baby black bear, no doubt shot in the end to both represent Obama and to threaten him and his supporters. Campus police have a photograph of the dead bear, but it has not been released to the media.
From the Chicago Tribune:
A 74-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man with Obama signs in their front yards near the 600 block of South Villa Avenue received similar letters that had a Villa Park Village Hall return address. “Get the Obama signs off your property—now,” the letter reads. “Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members.” Both residents said they will not remove their signs, though the man, who had voted Republican for 25 years before switching parties this year, said his wife is worried about letting their 7-year-old son play alone outside.
Now, you conservatives and Republicans love to play the moral equivalence card, and indeed John McCain played it in his last debate with Obama, saying that there were “stuff” said at Obama rallies about McCain too, so that justifies or at least excuses such incidents as above and at McCain and Palin’s rallies, where supporters shout “terrorist” and “kill him.” What is this “stuff?” Name me on incident were McCain was called a terrorist. Name me one incident where someone said kill McCain. Name me one incident where an Obama supporter killed an animal so as to threaten McCain and his supporters. Name me one incident where McCain supporters have received death threats on their families for having a McCain sign in their yard.
You can’t.
Yeah, Obama supporters think McCain is an elderly angry senile unstable insane warmongering asshole, and we have said it many times, but that is in no way equivalent to fucking death threats. To killing a bear. To hanging a ghost in a tree to symbolize a lynching of Obama, which happened last week in Ohio.
These hateful and disgusting incidents are happening so often that I really think that any honorable and moral person, no matter if they are a diehard conservative or Republican, cannot vote for McCain lest they be branded by these incidents for all eternity. How can you align yourself with someone who would kill a baby bear to make a racial threat against Obama? How can you align yourself with someone who would threaten death upon whole families simply because they have a sign in their yard? How can you sleep at night?