Things Keep Getting Nasty

On Monday, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Representative Pete Sessions spoke to a crowd of 100,000 supporters in Dallas on Monday. Wait, that was Obama in Colorado. Ok, Hutchison and Sessions spoke to a crowd of 100 supporters in Dallas on Monday. According to the Dallas Morning News, things got ugly when one man holding a "Rick Noriega for U.S. Senate" sign yelled "Change!" continuously during Hutchison's speech.

Alright, this must have been annoying, but this is America, and technically, the Constitution and Bill of Rights still apply (despite Bush's best efforts). We do still have freedom of speech.

However, three elderly Republicans took it upon themselves to shut this guy up. One man spit in his face while screaming for him to go to hell. One lady yelled "shut up, shut up, shut up," while another attempted to take his sign. Sessions repotedly asked the man, "Aren't you glad your mommy and daddy take care of you? You couldn't hold a job if you had to."

How old are you Congressman, three?

First of all, I hope Sessions was not implying that the man must be unable to hold down a job based on his attendance at the rally. If that's the case, then he also just insulted the thousands, um, hundreds, ok, dozens of Republicans that were there to support him. Unfortunately, since the protester declined to give his name, we may never know if he is capable of staying employed, or not.

Also, while I can sympathize with not wanting to hear someone shouting remarks at a political rally that you disagree with, getting physical is not the answer. I realize that three geriatric Republicans are not going to do much damage, but the fact is, there are going to be times in life when people disagree with each other. Sometimes we just have to keep our mouths shut (and our hand to ourselves) and accept our differences.

At this point in the campaign, I find it highly unlikely that any informed voter will change his or her mind. They've looked at the issues, decided where they stand, and picked a candidate. Most of our differences now are based on our fundamental beliefs. I would be just as unlikely to vote for a conservative Republican as my grandmother would be to vote for a liberal Democrat but, for God's sake, we would never get into a fist fight over it.

I'm not saying that we cannot continue to engage in political debates (even heated ones), but incidents like the one that happened in Dallas do nothing but cause stress and raise blood pressure. Republicans have already been blamed for most of the country's problems. Do they really want to be responsible for the health problems and hypertension of our senior citizens? Chill out, people.