She almost got me

The other day Sarah Palin called on her supporters to stop people whose cars have Obama bumper stickers on them. She instructed her supporters to then ask the drivers of said cars how the "hopey changey" thing is working out. But really what she's saying is that her supporters should stop those of us who have Obama bumper stickers on our cars and that they should berate us for daring to elect a president who is a Democrat, who is smart, and above all, who is black. And the odds are that if one of her supporters has the balls to make another driver stop, then her supporter will probably be armed and more than willing to use their weapon on someone who had the gall to elect a non Republican president of the USA.

And that goes double for the area of the USA where I live. Most of the people around here are conservative and they vote Republican. They have a hard time understanding why anyone wold ever vote Democrat, why people are liberals, and why they'd ever vote for a damn dirty black socialist. And they're likely to be armed as well. Which is why what Palin said is so scary. Words matter and to people all hopped up on Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and anger against the 'other,' then Palin's words are an invitation to not only stop someone and bitch at them for electing someone who isn't white or Republican, it's almost an open invitation to shoot their fellow citizen on sight. And if it did happen, and there has already been a road rage incident over an Obama bumper sticker in Nashville, then Palin would give her little bemused giggle, toss up her hands, and exclaim that she's not responsible because she didn't pull the trigger or wasn't behind the wheel of the car that caused the accident. She'd also say that she was just using her freedom of speech and that anyone who did violence based on what she said was probably a gosh danged liberal out to discredit hard working real Americans like her.

So given all that I'm nervous because we have an Obama bumper sticker on our car and we live in northeast Tennessee, an area where Democrats are looked at as Communists and less than human. An area where Republicans like their meth fresh and their politics a shade more conservative than Atilla the Hun's.

And yesterday while out in traffic while running errands I thought that the Sarah Palin shit storm was about to be unleashed on me. Here's what happened, I was driving along minding my own business and I pulled up in the left lane to a red light. On my left was a turn lane and in it was some sort Subaru truck like vehicle with a bumper sticker on the back window that read 'SOCIALISM ISN'T COOL' and underneath that it read, 'Americans for Prosperity.' As I waited for the light to change the woman behind the wheel of the Subaru turned to look over at me and she began motioning to me. I assumed she had taken issue with my bumper sticker since the corporate media insists on calling Obama a socialist (when in fact he's actually to the right of Bill Clinton, the last Democrat to be our Commander in Chief). She started talking to me but the window on the passenger side of her car was rolled up, as was my window. She looked like she was getting agitated and she began pointing at our car and then back at herself.

I just knew she wanted to heed the command of her idol Palin and I assumed she was not only crazy enough to say something to me about my sticker, I also assumed she was armed and ready to put a bullet in my ass and where ever else she could shoot me. Then light turned green and I sped off. I left crazy Subaru woman in the dust as soon as the light turned but I kept half an eye to see if she was nuts enough to try to follow me home. And if she had I was ready to call the police on her as soon as I got inside our house.

Then it hit me. She wasn't trying to get my attention so she could bitch about my bumper sticker, she was trying to get my attention to see if I would let her in front of me when the light turned green. She had gotten in the wrong lane and she wanted me to let her over. However, I'm not sorry I didn't let her over because I honestly thought she was out to do me harm. It's sad that Palin's over heated political rhetoric is causing misunderstandings like this and that I fear what some of my less mentally stable neighbors might do based on the ravings of a former beauty queen and failed half term Governor of Alaska. You see folks, it's not a very big step for a self aggrandizing person who believes Jesus chose her to be Governor of Alaska and who wanted her to be Vice President to go from calling for her followers to stop people with Obama bumper stickers to asking them to beat up or kill Obama voters because they cut a deal with the Devil to keep her and her party out of power. She's already said that people who disagreed with her politics weren't real Americans, so it's not far fetched that she'll say next that it's the will of her god that we Obama voters be wiped out.

I wish this post was an April Fool's joke or that I didn't feel the way I do, but it's not and I do look at my neighbors with a suspicious eye now that Palin has called for her followers to stop my car in traffic to demand that I be held accountable for everything that Obama has done. Seriously, I wish it were a joke or a prank, but it's not.