Hate Comes from Left, Too

Here’s my disclaimer: I am a social, fiscal, and political conservative with libertarian leanings. I am a registered Republican, not by choice but by default.

Many, many years ago when I first registered to vote I registered as an independent. I did not consider myself a Republican or a Democrat and probably did not know enough at the time to decide either way anyway. Shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to vote in a primary for Ronald Reagan. When I did so as an independent I was automatically re-registered by the system as a Republican. I never felt the need to change that affiliation.

Truthfully, I vote issues more than candidates. My order of voting is social issues followed by fiscal issues. The truth of the matter is through the years I have voted mostly Republican. I have voted for non-aligned candidates a few times, and I voted for one Democratic candidate for sherriff. My family knew the candidate and I respected him as an individual and, sad to say, I really did not know enough about the race he was in so I pulled the lever for him, once. That said, the truth of the matter is, aside possibly from being willing to support the now-deceased Bob Casey Sr., if I had lived in Pennsylvania, I have never met a Democratic candidate for political office that I felt I could support in good conscience.

I work in an office staffed by 13 professionals. Of the 13 I think I can safely say that four are anti-Republican (more than being actively Democratic) and so pull the Democratic lever religiously. Additionally, I think I could say that eight vote Republican, with four voting staunchly Republican and the other four voting Republican with somewhat less conviction than the other four but not being happy with any alternatives they’ve seen. That leaves one who might be a toss-up and is more like a “don’t care” than anything else.

So, what’s it all mean? At the rear of our office is a coffee mess with a table where a gentleman from the next office deposits a daily paper that he has left over from a route that he supplies, so we usually have a daily paper spread out on the table for all to peruse. Twice within the last week I have observed pictures of Republican politicians (Chris Christie just yesterday) whose pictures have been defaced. Somebody wrote “SCAB” over Christie’s picture with an indelible marker. I can’t remember whose picture was defaced last week but I do remember attention being called to the incident and observing it. I probably would have forgotten the incident save for the defacing of Christie’s picture that I saw today.

I do not know who the author of the defacements is but it is apparent that the same person did both. I do not know whether it is someone from my office or someone that passes through. I will state categorically that this is a recent phenomenon and that no one has ever defaced any Democratic politician’s picture.

I have heard over and over again in the news after each incident of hatred that erupts resulting in a person or persons getting hurt or killed that it is the hatred of the Right that is prompting all this bad behavior. I constantly hear the Democrats calling for civility and then directly after an incident where violence or hatred erupts, the Right is being blamed for something that was obviously a random event by the Democrats.

So, how is it that the Right is to blame for every bad incident that occurs but I never observe that behavior in the eight or so right-leaning individuals in my office and yet know that someone that hates conservative values is filled with so much vitriol against conservatives that he or she feels the need to act out in a such a childish manner as to deface pictures in a public newspaper?