Right-Wingers Celebrate Increase in Bicycle Accidents

A few days ago my 13-year old son excitedly showed me the new bumpersticker he got for this bike. It’s a picture of Barack Obama with the word “believe,” designed to stick in the spokes. Cool!

A few days later I read in my local alternative weekly here in Minneapolis that a local right wing website announced that an increase in bike deaths on the streets might mean fewer Obama voters come election day. Cruel!

A bad joke, I thought, until I looked up the blog and saw that it was illustrated with photos of cars plowing into and presumably killing a group of bicyclists. The photos look authentic (even if they were faked), which makes this more than a sick joke. It’s almost a provocation for motorists to mow down bicyclists, since they are a no-good bunch of liberals anyway.

Thinking about this, on top of the shouts of "Kill Obama" and "Off with his head" heard at recent Sarah Palin rallies, worries me. There’s an element in American society -- even here in Minnesota, which has the longest record of voting Democratic for president of any state -- that can’t seem to accept most of their fellow citizens no longer share their right-wing views. And perhaps never did.

What will they do if Obama wins on November 4? I hope that it’s nothing more than mean-spirited humor.

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