Party of bigots and bubbas? I can't indict an entire category of people--Bush supporters--based on the actions of a few, but Doug Grow's story in today's Star Tribune seems increasingly emblematic of the decline in civility I see ushered in by Republican activists. From defaced and stolen lawn signs to Bush's unpresidential mocking of John Kerry, from Rush Limbaugh's diatribes to the libelous (and continuing) swift boat ads, Bush backers seem to be, in many instances, proving themselves to be bigots, bubbas, and callous enemies of free speech. Grow writes of an incident in the suburb adjacent my Minneapolis neighorhood:

at least 17 families with lawn signs supporting John Kerry received hate-filled diatribes that were inserted in greeting cards.

The mailings were addressed to "Doltocrat." In the envelopes, recipients found greeting cards with perky messages ranging from "Happy Rosh Hashanah" to "Get Well Soon." When the cards were opened, three pages of typewritten hate oozed out.

"You have committed yourself to supporting Kerry as evidenced by your subversive and immorally-suggestive Kerry lawn sign display ... and it will be practically impossible for you to back out and retract it now. ..."

And on and on. The mailings included praise for Hitler. Attacks on gays and Jewish people and "not-so-Christian" churches. Attacks on Kerry. Praise for President Bush.

There were no direct threats to recipients. As vitriol goes, this stuff was not particularly creative.
Still, the fact that the creator of this material had taken the time to drive through Golden Valley neighborhoods to locate signs and to gather addresses and then had gone to the effort of mailing this stuff gave reasonable people the creeps...