Okay, some people take politics WAY too far.

[kyrielle]

Opinions? Fine. Worth shouting about? ...okay, not ideal, but fine.

It stops at the physical. No, seriously. A friend of mine had their political lawn signs (I believe for Obama) stolen from their lawn. A local man had his McCain sign hit with molotov cocktails. Neither of these is acceptable. (Although the latter is worse, and frankly more terrifying since the sign was close to his house. As it happens, his wife was sleeping in the room behind the adjacent windows: had they missed the sign, I don't want to think about what might have happened. They do have suspects in custody.)

Violence is not okay, no matter which candidate you support (or whether you support none). Destruction of property is not okay. Arson is not okay. Theft is not okay. Period.

This election is about who we are going to vote for, not who we are going to lynch. You can trumpet your vote to the world (although if you do so with a yard sign, apparently you're risking quite a bit...). You can keep it quiet. You can dislike people who disagree with you, although I don't recommend it, because usually they have reasons even if you don't share those reasons. (I know a number of thinking people on each side of the fence and whether I agree with them or not, I respect them. I know of some people who are purely on one side of the fence or the other for reasons that seem purely emotional and irrelevant to the actual question of who would be the best president, and I admit I find it hard to respect that. But I don't hate them, though the ones on the side I prefer irritate me as they sometimes say what seem to me rather stupid things while "supporting" that ticket.)

I am disgusted with some of the things people are doing in the name of this election.

Rant over. I'll go back, next time, to talking about happy things. Or complaining about how hard it is to train Ray not to climb all over things he isn't allowed on. (We went through that phase with Apple, too, but Ray responds well to the water bottle. Which sucks when he's climbing on my laptop, as I'm not going to shoot water at it!)

Comments

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

I've heard of signs being stolen out of yards at pretty much every election. It's so childish.

[erisiansaint]

Last election, I talked to some guy who was Republican whose car had been keyed. The biggest thing that keeps me from getting fairly rude at people in their journals is this: you cannot convince someone of something while doing things to offend them. I rant in my own LJ, but I try to keep it polite everywhere else, and I figure my own LJ is my safe-space.

And, while election violence, whether to property, people's bodies or people's psyches is actually no new thing, it's still unacceptable.

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

I've voted. (Absentee ballot.) And figure it's nobody's business but my own who I voted for. (OK, I told my other half - but even *he* asked me very carefully if I was prepared to tell him.)

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like to think that whichever side you are on, we can all agree that vuolence is not okay.

One of the things that the US states as being so glorious about it is that we are able to have changes in who is in power peacefully. When John Adams, our second US President, became the first one to be voted out of office (since George Washington chose to not run again) it was a big moment. He left office peacefully and willingly and Thomas Jefferson stepped into the office.

That's part of what makes us great. That we can vote on who our next leader is and have our elected President take office without needing to fight battles or wars.

Voters should be able to vote freely and without threat of violence. Free speech should be protected for those voters who wish to voice their opinions. And we should be able to non-violently have an election year with a peaceful change of power (since the incumbent President is not running, there will be a change of power this year either way). That's one of the really impressive things about the US; let's keep it that way.