Two weeks ago somebody destroyed the back windshield of my car.

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It was parked next to a dumpster, and some jerk decided to grab a thick, ugly, pineapple-shaped glass trash vase and use it for some smashing. I couldn’t even really get mad about it. It was one of those random acts of vandalism and I was the evening’s karmic toilet. There must have been twenty other cars parked around mine, and I got the short stick. C’est la vie. But then I started wondering if maybe my car was targeted because of the Obama bumper sticker still affixed on the back. Maybe some drunk, racist asshole walked by my car, saw I was still rubbing his nose in defeat, and decided to wreck my stuff. It’s possible, but it seems so unlikely. Nobody’s going to get their windshield smashed, on Capitol Hill of all places, for having an Obama sticker on their car. Right?

I came out to my car yesterday to find this:

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Well shit. I guess this means my car is a target. Granted, this act of vandalism is minor and easily remedied, but it proves that my Obama bumper sticker has marked my car for intolerant acts. There’s still no way to know if my windshield got smashed because of it, but the probability just went way up. So does this mean I have to take my Obama sticker off my car in order to feel safe again? I can’t afford wasting hundreds more on another stupid repair – I’m the working poor. But I’m also not quite done reveling from November 4th yet. And even if I was, I want to take the sticker off when I’m ready, not because I’m worried it’s going to lead to more smashing. I don’t want to be a defeatist coward, but I’m so poor. Sigh.

60 replies on “I am No Defeatist Coward…am I?”

  1. Hey, guys.

    I’m a Seattle Republican. Believe it or not, we exist!

    The thing that makes me uncomfortable about this situation is how everyone is obsessing over “rubbing it in.” I voted for Bush and never did I or any of my friends make an effort to rub anything anywhere. If anything we kept our victory celebrations to a whisper. However, this may just be due to where we live.

    I’ve seen and heard plenty of examples of W supporters, Republicans and veterans getting their cars slashed up, keyed, tagged, spat on and defecated on.

    My suggestion to you: get used to it! This is one of the many perks of putting your man in power.

    If you can’t get used to it be willing to affect a change in your own behavior. Please don’t pretend that Republicans run a monopoly on vandalism. We need to halt the culture of blame. We don’t want eight years where bad behavioral patterns have simply flipped. I don’t want to see Republicans being sore losers or Democrats being sore winners.

    Are Democrats defeatist cowards? No. But neither are Republicans uneducated racists. We need to get away from these blatant generalizations. It’s in keeping with what both Obama and McCain said.

    “I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in…offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans.” -John McCain

    “It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states; we are and always will be the United States of America.” -Barack Obama

    I would like to take the time to make it clear that Barack Obama is my president, too. I will support this man as the leader of my nation. I may make fun of him and rail against some of his policies…but this man will be my President for the next four to eight years. My Republican friends and I wish him success in all of his endeavors because success for Mr. Obama translates to success for Americans and many others abroad.

    Please accept my Congratulations, and realize that I along with millions of others will be supporting Barack Obama at a level that most Democrats couldn’t muster for Mr. Bush. Don’t get caught up with these minor acts which are the exception to the rule. Both parties need to try to get past this if we want any of the lauded Change we were promised.

    Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m a soft Republican, either. I am a pro-life, gun-carrying, traditional-marriage-supporting, big-business, small-government, pro-change-in-the-middle-east Republican.

    All of us need to get past polarizing comments, stereotypes and behaviors. I have friends, family and coworkers who are young, old, rich, poor, Democrat, Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Today I will go celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, despite its political divisions. Tonight I will go to bed with my girlfriend who I love and cherish, though she is a Democrat. Next week I will go back to work where there are people of all convictions and persuasions, and I will work alongside them with complete indifference to the fact that their personal beliefs differ from mine.

    I’m positive that the individuals who posted above and who are reading this now also have a multitudinous variety of people in their lives that they know and are dear to them. Let’s not make the mistake of calling each other racists or cowards.

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