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Tensions are flaring with so little time left before the elections, and here in Central Texas it's the cars that are suffering as a result. Burnt Orange Report reader wagwa had his Honda Civic trashed while out in western Hays County over the weekend, with vandals heaving a rock through the back window and spray painting what looks like "OBAAH" on the driver's side door. Not to be left out (so to speak), UrbanGrounds, a self-described "conservative biker and military veteran living in liberal Austin, Texas," wrote about how his Land Rover has been repeatedly keyed for having such bumper stickers as "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" and "Stop the Audacity of Hype. Vote Republican." Seriously, folks, can't we all just duke it out in the voting booths? [via Snowed In]
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ACL Fest is full of shit. http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/music/entr
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I blame the Ron Paul supporters. (I kid, I kid... please don't key my car).
From what I've heard/read, a hell of a lot more Obama signs have been stolen than McCain signs. Don't know about car vandalism, but this isn't some case of "Both sides are equally to blame."
Liberals by nature have a much greater tolerance of dissent than do conservatives.
If you're ever tempted to fall into the laziness of false equivalence, I heartily encourage you to go read Robbie's blog (and the others, but especially his). There's a real difference here: Robbie insists that Republicans hardly ever do this stuff, and they certainly don't do it as severely as what happened to him; while the dude at BOR and Mean Rachel didn't make any such claim, even though they actually could, given that the damage to their vehicles was far more severe.
It would seem to me that a rock through the window and spray painting a vehicle with something appearing to read OBAAH would be motivated by the bumper sticker. A car getting keyed, well...maybe he's just an ass and the neighborhood kids don't like him. It's not like there was any indication/evidence that it was because of the stickers, he's just blaming Obama supporters for something that is much more random and occurs at a much, much higher rate than a rock getting thrown through a window and the car getting spray painted. Either way and for both instances, it's rather childish and uncalled for.
"Liberals by nature have a much greater tolerance of dissent than do conservatives."
...says the Austin liberal. How often in Austin do you really have the opportunity to be tolerant of dissent?
Ummmm, a lot? We do live in Texas, remember?
Well, here are some Travis County election results for the 2004 election. Seems there are hundreds of thousands of people who voted for Bush or straight Republican in this town. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/20041102/enight_results.pdf
If you believe that in living in Austin you are exposed to "dissent"...Well, you need to spend more time outside of Austin.
Random, at my last two jorbs (current and previous), I'm definitely in the minority of NotRealAmericans working amongst the faithful. As YoYoMa pointed out, even in city limits, there's a hellalot of Republicans.
No doubt Republicans/Conservatives/Non-liberals are out there, but the political culture and discussion is dominated by Liberals/Progressives or whatever we're calling them. Let's be honest, that's part of the appeal of Austin to A LOT of people.
Listening to liberals talk about how open and diverse the dialogue is in this town is like listening to republicans tell you that Fox News is truly fair and balanced.
The City Council and Chronicle are dominated by self-described liberals and progressives(*), sure. The Statesman is what would pass for moderate Republican in most sane states. As are the local TV news outlets.
(* - BATPAC are actually conservatives by the true meaning of the word - they want nothing to ever change, and like the way things used to be...)
"Liberals by nature have a much greater tolerance of dissent than do conservatives."
The sad thing is that you actually belive that this is true. You really need to get out of Texas for awhile. Go spend some time in a place like Berkeley (cliche, but true) and you'll see liberal intolerance.