Over the past months there have been many reports of Campaign signs being defaced, threats being made, albeit indirectly, and then we learn of a couple of assaults that have happened over campaign signs. I truly believe that there are those people that would suppress political speech for personal gain.
Intimidation
The reports of campaign signs being defaced and stolen, The Democratic presidential nominee telling his followers to 'get in their face', speaking of people that do not agree or would not vote for him. He would like his followers to aggressively argue his case. In and of itself, this is not bad. I tend to get passionate about my political leanings, my Family and my God. I will try my best to get you to see my point of view and change your mind. If I cannot we will agree to disagree. At least I will. There is a story of a man being assaulted in a restaurant when he cut of a political discussion. The affiliations of those men are irrelevant. That was a violent attempt to silence an individual's political speech. A man was attacked because he disagreed with another’s political view point. A campaign manager's house was shot up; it is suspected, over the campaign signs in his yard in support of McCain/Palin. In the news for about a week, we have heard political Pundits warn us that since Obama has a ‘massive lead' in the polls that there will be 'trouble in major cities if the One is not elected. These are subtle attempts to intimidate people to vote in a certain way, to intimidate you and me into either voting for Obama or staying home. The news reports and poll results are all geared to get you to stay home and not vote. They tried this in o4 when we elected Bush by a narrow margin. They will do the same thing this year. They do not care that they are shooting their credibility to hell. A Socialist state is their goal and I think they may have a chance this year of electing another Jimmy Carter.
Suppression of free speech
As a case in point I would point out the Democrats discussion and apparent desire to reinstate the fairness doctrine. The fairness doctrine would move talk radio back to the era of shows on how to fatten cattle, your favorite carrot cake recipe and farm and market reports that dominated the news cycle. Another example was actually perpetrated a couple of years ago in the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform act. This act restricts the amount of money and who can give what. The SCOTUS (Supreme Court Of The United States) has since equated money and political speech and has struck down portions of the law.
Voter Fraud
This is another attempt to suppress political speech but, more than that, it is stealing. There are many allegations against the group ACORN for voter fraud. They have attempted to register Mickey Mouse and Nadda Realperson. They have claimed many times they cannot vet all of the registrations they receive. I see this as a transparent attempt to deflect blame to their employees, employees that the employer is ultimately responsible for. Now we get the word that GOP Election Board members have been tossed out of polling stations in at least half a dozen polling stations in Philadelphia because of their party status. This is a direct violation of a court order but, apparently, the law does not mean much in Philly.
