Political Theory, Political Action

I'm not a great political theorist. My level of political sophistication is more Mayberry, RFD than Thomas Jefferson. Although I know that the Vice President of the United States did, in fact, suggest that a United States Senator should perform a sexual act upon himself, I tend to think of that as happening 'out there' -- not related to where I live. And I'm only faintly bemused by the idea that organizations dedicated to ensuring a fair election are coming here -- not to learn how to do it, but to do it.

That was then, this is now.

Yesterday coming back from grocery shopping, I was a little surprised to note that a home up the street from ours didn't have its Kerry yard sign any more. Gee, I thought, I wonder why. Then I came over the rise to our home - and stared.

There wasn't a Kerry sign there, either.

On the off chance that a large blue and white sign could have somehow become invisible, I got out, walked over, touched the slender post upon which the sign had resided. Post, yes. Sign, no.

I was furious. I wanted to race down the street and hammer at the door of every house with a Bush sign, asking which of them was the SOB that had done it. I didn't do that. I did go to the other house and ask, did you lose your sign? And when they said that they thought it had blown away in last night's storm, I pointed out what had happened to me. And that all of the Bush signs were still there. They were startled. They said it made them feel creepy, to know that people like that lived around here. Me, too, I said.

As it turned out, the woman works near the Kerry headquarters in a local city. She told me where it was. I drove down there, still fuming. Parked, walked into a hubbub of activity. Finding out that they were not equipped to take credit card donations, I darted out to an ATM, withdrew a sizeable amount of cash (sizeable for me, anyway), came back, gave it to them. The woman at the reception desk was -- well, she looked at the money and said 'How much money are you giving me, anyway?' Not as much as I'd like to, I replied. I took three Kerry signs, and left.

One for my neighbor, should she want to replace the stolen one. One for me, now taped to our lamp post, with the light on (it'll be on till the election is over), and one to sit in the front dashboard of the van, to be used if needed. In other words, if the SOBs take the sign from the lamp post.

I know. In the great scheme of things, this is nothing. Do a Google search on 'stolen yard signs', and you find out its happened in lots of places, on both sides of the fence. But this happened to me. Remember the defintion of a conservative? A liberal who's been mugged? My house had been mugged.

What kind of people can do this sort of thing?

One other thing.

It occurs to me that if reelected -- oh, god, I hope not -- Bush doesn't really have to worry about impeachment. Who would do that -- knowing it would make Cheney president?

Shudder.

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