“Somebody with a Bush bumper sticker had their car window broken out,” she says, “and now others are saying they’re afraid to have signs and stickers for Bush.”This is too close to home -- a friend and I used to rent a condo in Vail for many years before I got married and settled down. I had been avoiding putting up signs and bumper stickers for W because I didn't want to have my car keyed. Now I don't care after this garbage. And I'm upping my already substantial contribution to W and the other Republican candidates.
The cars of Eagle-Vail resident Gunther Schmidt and his daughter had their Bush-Cheney bumper stickers scratched off, but he just stuck new ones right back on. Originally from Germany, Schmidt knows well the history of Hitler’s fascist movement and says the analogy fits.
“It starts kind of slow and easy with little things but can escalate into something more,” he comments. “I can see people being threatened by it, and becoming afraid that someone will do something to them. I thought we lived in a free country where you could express your opinion in a nonviolent way, without being punished for it.”
Schmidt advises standing firm and defying the attacks. “I would say to continue to show your support for whoever you are supporting – don’t give up because we can’t allow this country to go backwards.”
On the national level, the sign destruction has amped up into the trashing of Republican offices, physical attacks on Republicans, and even hails of bullets through the windows of campaign offices.
[Eagle County Bush-Cheney co-chair] Henri Stone got a powerful message that her views could be hazardous to her health when the couple returned home from a short trip to find the French doors to their bedroom shattered. Nothing was taken, indicating to the Stones that more menacing motives than larceny were at work.
The left loves to call the right Nazis. It's not the Dems getting shot at -- this is projection pure and simple.
P.S. Nazi is an abbreviation for "National Socialist" by the way -- not national capitalist. Ugghhh...
UPDATE: Slate's likely readership has determined I'm an asshole. The writer has a bit more insight.
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