Paradigm Shift

As ugly as this election season has become, I appreciate the ability for both of the following stories to completely mix things up and maybe question our generalizations.

Unhinged McCain Hater

Last month, a small group of McCain supporters were hanging out peacefully and distributing pamphlets at 51st and Lexington in Manhattan. For no apparent reason, a local Manhattanite went up to a middle-aged woman holding a McCain/Palin sign and started screaming at her. Eventually, he ripped the sign out of her hands, broke it, and then actually hit her with it, bruising her face in the process. While attempting to flee from the scene, the woman followed the attacker down to a subway platform and alerted the police officers there as to what transpired. When confronted, the attacker allegedly said the following:

"I don’t know why I did this. It’s just those signs, and this election, it has me so upset.”

Major fail.

There is absolutely no excuse for such a disgusting display of violence. It's simply not possible for people to cling to the idea of our country being so morally superior to others while doing stupid shit like this. How ironic that an election of a new leader to help us move forward (i.e. progress) from the current shitheel-in-chief can result in regression to lizard-brained behavior that's anathema to a respectful and functional culture.

(As an aside, it isn't clear what this attacker's political affiliation is, aside from the fact that he clearly hates McCain.)

Muslim McCain Supporters - Truth to Power

Thanks to Shaker Kathy at Birmingham Blues for forwarding this item from the American News Project. Their summary of the following video covers it all:

At a John McCain rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, three people handed out "Obama for Change" bumper stickers with the Communist sickle and hammer and the Islamic crescent, saying Obama was a socialist with ties to radical Islam. Several moderate McCain supporters, Muslim and Christian alike, struck back - relentlessly bombarding the group distributing the flyers until they left the premises.

The bigots who were trying to stoke the anti-Muslim fire thought they were safe to do so at the McCain rally. How pleasant a surprise to see them get slammed by fellow supporters and a representative of the campaign. Now those are the kinds of supporters that merit media attention.