Let's all just take it easy

I've been seeing stories in the news lately of vandalism and even acts of violence against partisans both left and right.  I wonder to myself, what is there to really get that excited about?

We can thank campaign finance reform for this to some degree.  Thanks to McCain-Feingold it is practically the law of the land to create negative ads.  Since 3rd party ads are created to be educational in general, their goal is to educate you on how one of the candidates is evil. 

In the last week I've read about a physical fight at a nursing home involving an elderly Republican and an elderly Democrat.  I read about a man charged by police for throwing dog crap into another man's truck because he had a McCain sign.  This morning yet another story about a man's house being shot at because of signs in his yard for McCain. (kinda cool that Democrats have guns though...just sayin')

And what is all this division about?  Maybe it's the tax policy...after all Obama wants to raise the top marginal rate 3%.  Wait, just 3%?  We're hitting supporters of the other candidate over 3%?  That can't be it.

Maybe it's the Wall Street bailout that has everyone angry at the other side.  Wait, didn't they both vote for the bailout?  I doubt someone shot up a house over a policy on which they saw eye-to-eye.

Maybe it's about the Iraq war.  Well wait a second there.  Neither candidate is in a hurry to leave Iraq and both have pledged a different direction than the Bush administration so I can't imagine flinging poo over this one.

Maybe it's really because they've tried so hard to convince us that they're so different that electing the "other one" would bring peril to the country.  Maybe after all these ads they've polarized us over small percentages, policy nuance, and have hidden where they typically agree.

They divide us and make us believe the worst so they can control the 3 Trillion Dollars of federal resources, much of it taken by force from you.  As I said before...a smaller government would wield less power.  3rd parties would spend less money scaring you about the opponent of their buddy candidate because it wouldn't be worth much to see him elected in the first place. 

As long as we have big government, they will scare us and divide us over nuance.  Shame on us for even listening.

Let's all just take it easy.