Thugs to the Right of Us, Thugs to the Left of us …

Rightie blogger Professor Bainbridge chronicles incidents of intimidation of Bush-Cheney campaign workers and vandalism against Bush-Cheney campaign offices. Severity of incidents ranges from teens trashing yard signs to battery – somebody punched a Republican committee chairman. Bainbridge writes,

If this sort of thing were happening to Democrats, both the Michael Moore-types and the mainstream media would be screaming about Republican stormtroopers directed by Reichsführer-SS John Ashcroft. Since it’s happening to Republicans, however, it is mostly covered just by local media. In any event, it cerainly gives one pause about putting up a Bush yard sign or putting on a Bush bumpersticker.

This sort of thing has happened to Democrats, of course, but I don’t know if anyone is keeping tabs. I did a news google and came up with a few recent incidents:

Vandals set fire to signs and wrote pro-George W. Bush messages on the front of the Democratic Party Headquarters of Lafayette, Louisiana. A mixture of ash from the fire and what appeared to be motor oil was used to smear “4+ GWB” across the front windows and “W” on the headquarters’ door. This is the second time the office was hit by vandals.

In Pennsylvania, a man ran out of a Republican office building and attacked Kerry demonstrators across the street.

A little after noon, a man who looked to be in his 50s ran out the front door of the Republican office building, crossed the four-lane Main Street, and grabbed Lainie Maloy’s big blue Kerry banner.

“He was screaming like a lunatic, obscenities mostly,” said the Greensburg woman, who sported peace-sign earrings.

“He told us he hopes al-Qaida kills us all,” said Thor Strong. “He grabbed the banner and took off back across the road, dragging [Maloy] with him.”

“He pulled me right out into the traffic,” Maloy said. “Then he finally let go and ran away, back into the Republican building over there.”

Workers in the Republican office denied knowing who the man was.

Democratic headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas, was vandalized – somebody spray-painted “Bush” and some profanities (I assume the profanities were not modifying “Bush") on windows and signs.

In Oregon, Kerry-Edwards signs were stolen or damaged. Some cars with Kerry bumper stickers were vandalized.

In Galveston County, Texas, vandals broke a window of the Dem campaign office and left behind a tire iron and a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker. (The county Republican chairman denied that Bush supporters could have done such a thing.)

As I said, the examples above are just the ones that turned up in a news google this morning. I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceburg.

Vandalism and assault are wrong. I’m not excusing it because “they do it too.” I’m just saying that people from both sides are doing it.

Professor Bainbridge wants to wallow in victimhood, a common rightie practice (see Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas). He wants Kerry to put a stop to it, as if the vandalizers are taking orders from the Democratic party. He believes the news media is covering up reports of assaults on Republicans. I guess the news media is really burying assaults on Democrats, since Bainbridge hasn’t heard of them.

Anyway, please send me tips on assaults and vandalism of Democrats, and I’ll try to maintain a list.

3 Comments »

1. Trashing yard signs?!!

   I worked on a local election when I was a freshman in high school and vandalizing the opponents campaign signs was my only responsibility.

   Comment by Steve — October 7, 2004 @ 7:35 am

2. Orcinus has a boatload of such incidents.
   http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004_09_26_dneiwert_archive.html#109651925861192967

   Comment by Carl — October 7, 2004 @ 8:07 am

3. I posted about some vandalism of the Democratic Coordinated Campaign Headquarters in my hometown of Lafayette a few weeks ago. You can see it here. If permalink doesn’t work, scroll to “what a bunch of dicks?”

   Comment by ricky prado — October 7, 2004 @ 8:20 am

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