Remember, it's us lefties who are "full of hate" (UPDATED)

by folkbum (update below)

November 2004 was not a fun time for me. I remember sometime around 2 AM after the election returns were in sending off money to John Kerry's legal fund to fight whatever challenges he would pursue, I remember knocking out a couple of really bitter posts here, I remember being quite angry that the rest of the country couldn't see what I saw.

But I never went this far:

Police in Caledonia are investigating the assault of a campaign volunteer as she was canvassing for Senator Barack Obama Saturday afternoon.

In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.

“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”

This man--a Wisconsin man--allegedly assaulted an Obama volunteer, a fifty-eight-year-old woman. He threw everything at her that the McCain campaign and the righty blogs and the conservative media have been repeating for weeks: Obama's not a real American (she was "not his people"), ACORN is the root cause of everything bad in this country (credit crisis, vote fraud, and so on). This guy is a true believer. And he's the one full of hate.

And it's not just this guy: Smarter people than I have been chronicling the assualts--on individuals as well as reason--happening before, during, and after campaign appearances by John McCain and Sarah Palin. A hundred thousand people turned out to hear Obama in St. Louis yesterday, and no one got hurt.

But remember, we have been told for years--we're still being told now!--that it's Democrats and "lefties" ("libtards," some prefer to call us) who are full of hate. I call that projection, not fact. Look in the mirror, fellas. It's not us.

UPDATE: In comments, John notes that one Racine County conservative blogger has gone into "full hate mode." In fact, that blogger posts this story in response to the news that one of his (ideological and near-geographical) neighbors allegedly attacked a 58-year-old woman:

In 2004, there was a goon here from one of the lefty 527s that tried to force me to take his piece of garbage. When I wouldn’t, he tried to stick it on my door. I followed the bastard down the street and shoved it back in his bag. It took a neighbor who happens to be in law enforcement to separate us.

What's amazing about this is that the blogger in question posts it because he's proud of it. He posts is because he thinks it makes the canvasser look bad, not him. He could have closed the door, he could have balled the flyer up and thrown it in the canvasser's face and then closed the door. He could have called 911 to report a trespasser. But no--he chases the guy down and man-handles him in the street such that a neighbor has to break it up.

There's your anger, folks. There's your hate.