Sign Repression

Ok, I know I come from a small town. I live in the quite literal middle of nowhere (I'm exactly the same difference between Boston and San Francisco). This is the middle of the ultra-conservative Bible Belt. The last time this state voted Democrat was for LBJ, and I think that was more about guilt than anything else.

With all that in mind, I don't know why I was surprised when I heard the news that Obama/Biden yardsigns had been stolen all over town.

As you can see, this is not an area of wide-reaching political diversity. In a town of 30,000, there were only 50 Obama yard signs. That's not the point. The point is that this is a microcosm of the idiocy going around throughout the country. We have people out there who quite literally think that anyone with a different point of view is not only wrong, but does not have the right to disagree or even come up with new ideas.

Look around. We have people yelling at others to leave the country because of a difference in ideas of where the country should be going. We have people who think it is unpatriotic to disagree with the president, and who believe it should be illegal to be gay, Muslim, Catholic, a Democrat, an athiest . . . simply because they are none of those things.

I know, that is a lot to read into a simple case of vandalism (with a touch of 1st Amendment violation thrown in for flavour), but as I've paid attention to conversations around me, news items, the absolute hatred pouring out of AM radio, I've come to the conclusion that sign-theft is just the tip of the ice-berg.

Sign theft happens so damn often during campaigns. Someone stole my Dean bumper sticker back in 2004. Jerkface!

I'm sure it does. I said something about this in my blog and many people had similar things happen in their areas. But that doesn't change the fact that sign theft like that, by either side, is a symptom of a bigger problem.

Oh, no doubt. There's some serious hatred on both sides. Talk radio is stirring up the right, and the left wing blogopshere is (along with liberal talking heads in the media) stirring up the left.

i think there might be some "blatant ignorance" thrown into the equation too.

Yesterday night we had all the signs in our area stolen or mutilated. McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden it didn't matter, they were destroyed or just missing entirely.

I don't think it had anything to do with political profiling, i think it was just stupid ignorant people with nothing better to do.

The guy around the corner was almost in tears, someone tore his "Ron Paul '08" lawn sign in half, you'd think the thing was made of gold.....

I posted here about the idea of the Big Sort that's been discussed at Slate and elsewhere.

What happens in smaller, self-selected communities is:
- homogeneity of views increases through the sorting process, and then
- increasing stridency and extremism tends to result.

Big cities tend to be "cosmopolitan", meaning that their denizens tend to be necessarily exposed to a wider range of viewpoints.

They stole your bumper sticker....as in it was glued onto your bumper and removed?

Yup. Luckily I had like 20 more.

I read people were stealing McCain signs in my area. Seriously, do they think that's making a difference? The paper this story was printed in also had a crudely written letter one of the sign stealers supposedly wrote saying we better get used to a black house in Washington... I can't believe the paper published that, made me feel dirty.

Your paper or my paper? I wouldn't be surprised to see it in my paper, but I couldn't find that.

My Obama yardsign has been dismantled twice, and I have fixed it twice thus. I suspect it is my new neighbors (I live in a predominantly house-for-rent district), who have among other naughty things a confederate flag on their front porch and tinted their pick-up truck windows with the confederate battle flag.

They must be oblivious to the fact that their neighbors are Palestinian, Lebanese, Somali, Liberian, and Irish.

Libertarians have had that problem bad for a very long time. SOP is now buy 3 for each one you want up, and store the other two. Early voting gets one, last couple of days before the election gets the rest in wide scattered locations.

As ludicrous as sign stealing is, it's not as bad as stealing votes.

What is vote stealing according to you?

If stealing ballots I would agree, some other things, not so much.

I can never find the liberal talking heads. They must be on cable.

gold liberty dollars ?

On the grand list of dirty political tricks, this is approximately dead last in stuff you need to worry about. It's annoying, sure, but yard signs in presidential elections mean dick.

True. But I hadn't added a thread for awhile, and i thought you all were lonely for my brilliance

I used to steal signs back when I was in high school.

No particular signs, just anything that was light and flimsy enough to grab quickly and cheap enough to still be funny.

I had a collection.

Most of them ended up being signs advertising church services.

I wonder if people thought I was making a statement.

win.

Win.

Yep, some people are desperate enough to steal the campaign signs of their competitors when there is no strategy left. Pathetic.

I just remantled my sign in the front yard.

My neighbors have started to openly brag about methods for assassinating Obama, while they cook burgers and hot dogs outside. I know they're the ones responsible.

If they continue to do so (make threats against Obama), and he is elected, I suggest you follow the advice of the Neo-Cons and report them as domestic terrorists. I imagine the FBI knocking on their door may take them down a notch or two.