A sign of things to come?

The county I live in went to Barrack Obama. Up until the day of the election, there was not one day that went by where an Obama supporter wasn't dropping off campaign materials and wanting to discuss the issues. I was good natured about it, and I really liked watching them squirm when they realized they were talking to an unapologetic conservative. They always looked really uncomfortable, but I expect that from people who are so easily swayed by missives of "hope" and "change".

My area was littered with McCain and Obama yard signs everywhere. Public property, private property, roadside, curbsides...everywhere.

The day after the election, I had to drive back and forth across town multiple times, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could not see any McCain signs anywhere. Every single place I knew they were put out were gone. At first I figured that the people who had put them out were disapointed in the outcome and decided to get rid of them, but the odds that everyone had done so seemed a stretch. I was right to question the odds.

Then it happened to be that I looked in the local newspaper, and to my complete lack of surprise there was an article written about the wholesale theft of McCain signs that had occurred in the middle of the night. Overzealous Obama supporters - so gleeful that all their problems were going to be solved now that the Messiah had been reborn - took it upon themselves to scour every road and piece of property during the night and steal every McCain sign they could find.

Now, I'm old enough to accept defeat gracefully, and as much as I was disappointed that Obama had won, I had pretty much accepted McCain's inevitable loss after seeing his lousy performance in the second debate. It was the final product of the Perfect Storm: Unpopular President, economic woes and the souring of the Republican brand. It hurts to lose and nobody likes it.

The sign theft bothered me not because the miscreants went on private property and took things that didn't belong to them, or that it was a bunch of smug winners wanting to rub victory in the faces of McCain supporters. It's part of what it represents.

The people who did it embody the new mainstream face of the democrat party. These are not just people who have a different set of political beliefs, these are people who resent the fact that people like me and others who openly opposed the election of Barrack Obama exist. We're called racists. We're called Nazis. We're called homophobes, sexists, bigots, warmongers, religious wackos and gun freaks. It is not enough for them to accept that we oppose their liberal ideology for legitimate reasons. They consider the opposition to their political beliefs not as a difference in opinion, but as the embodiment of evil and hate. Those are convenient emotional responses to political opposition for them, because in their minds it frees them from all restraints and standards of moral conduct. After all, when battling evil, or defending one's self from hate, what can possibly be considered out of bounds?

The essence of liberalism's goal is the elimination of dissent, and in attempting to remove dissent, liberals will do whatever is deemed necessary. President Bush rose in popularity because he wore his humanity on his sleeve and reacted to the 9/11 attacks with grit and resolve, so liberalism's solution was to engage in the personal, nonstop, brutal, 24/7 no-holds-barred dehumanization of the President. Successful and popular talk radio programs that have promoted conservative values and beliefs were recently compared to pornography by Chuck Schumer, who said that the Fairness Doctrine needed to be reinstated in order for the government to regulate the content of speech in a free enterprise business. Scientists who express doubt about the existence of Global warning don't get grant money. Teachers who do not tow the liberal line are not granted tenure. Joe Lieberman, a lifelong democrat who dared to support the war, was kicked out of his party. Bob Casey, another lifelong democrat who had the audacity to be pro-life, was once barred from speaking at the Democratic National Convention specifically because he opposed abortion.

Barrack Obama is not a centrist. He is not another "New Democrat". Outside of him being the first black to be elected President, he is no different nor any less partisan than Bill Ayers, the Reverend Jerimiah Wright, his new chief of staff Rahm "F-Bomb" Emannuel or the people who could not stand seeing signs supporting McCain for one more minute.