Tolerant, peaceful Democrats

[gae]

HIGH SCHOOL ATTACK: KERRY TAUNTS TIED TO FIGHT
Wed Nov 10 2004 09:55:52 ET

Three high school students face charges for using a bat to beat another student who taunted them about being John Kerry supporters days after the contentious election.

The 17-year-old Apple Valley victim was assaulted Thursday in a Minnesota Zoo parking lot near Apple Valley's School of Environmental Studies, better known as the zoo school. Chad McKay, also 17, stood over the victim attempting to protect him.

"It's a good thing to see young people interested and excited about politics," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. "It's obviously very disturbing to see this kind of violence over it."

The SAINT PAUL PIONEER PRESS reported in morning editions: The argument began earlier in the day Thursday with a discussion about candidates the minors had supported for president, Backstrom said. The two victims supported President Bush.

"We were sitting in the computer room at school, and there was kind of a political debate," said Chad McKay of Arden Hills. "Some people said only gay people vote for Bush." Chad said the victim said "only gay people would vote for Kerry because he supports gay marriage."

Backstrom said the victims then "called the other guys some names."

Chad said later in the afternoon when he and the victim were walking to their cars they heard their three senior classmates yelling at them, according to the police report.

Chad got to his car, but the three 17-year-olds attacked the victim, he said, hitting him in face, including with a baseball bat and kicking him. One boy had a padlock wrapped around his finger, Chad said.

Developing...

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[travelinman]

I'm expecting a lot of "it ain't me" and "why are you classifying me with them?" responses to that article.

The Democratic Party has a fundamental problem. Spend some time looking at the loonies on the DU and Salon. The reactions and their behavior in response to W's re-election is frightening. There's talk of disrupting the innaugration, there's talk of moving to Canada, there's talk of boycotts. As we've seen prior to and after the election, there's increasing violence by what is being called "fringe".

The DNC is not looking to understand what went wrong and see what it is they need to do to pull more votes from the moderate center of the country. They're looking to replace McAuliff with someone even more liberal.

With W's inroads into the Latino population this last election, his nomination of a Latino as AG, and his potential nominations of Latinos to the Supreme Court and other benchs, the Republicans are going to sew up the Latino vote for '08.

Unless you moderate Democats take a look at your party and see where it's headed, you're going to get trounced in 4 years, regardless of who runs.

[LanDroid]

"I'm expecting a lot of "it ain't me" and "why are you classifying me with them?" responses to that article. The Democratic Party has a fundamental problem."

Yes, you're on to the problem - Democrats lost because the party consists solely of bat wielding high school students.

[gae]

No, Lan. The Dems lost because even though Kerry "had a plan", his plan had no substance.

Don't you think it's just a little bit more than extreme to beat someone up because you don't like who's sitting in the White House?

[jumper69]

Actually Bill Clinton had an article in the USA today yesterday that echoed the very same sentiments....well almost.

Apparently Bill thinks that the Democrats let the republicans get away with a coup by not standing up to the evangelicals.

I think what he meant was that the Democrats actually believe in God as well. But the repubs portrayed them as gay loving, marriage wrecking, nation surrendering liberals and they had no comeback for it.

[gae]

I think what he meant was that the Democrats actually believe in God as well. But the repubs portrayed them as gay loving, marriage wrecking, nation surrendering liberals and they had no comeback for it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As an avid reader of Salon's Table Talk, I agree with the first sentence. The second sentence, though, isn't a Republican portrayal. It's the truth, at least as far as the majority of Salon posters are concerned.

[travelinman]

Originally posted by Jumper69:

But the repubs portrayed them as gay loving, marriage wrecking, nation surrendering liberals and they had no comeback for it.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your wrong in that the Republicans didn't have to, the Rats do it fine by themselves.

[travelinman]

Originally posted by LanDroid:

Yes, you're on to the problem - Democrats lost because the party consists solely of bat wielding high school students.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You really don't understand that perception of reality is more important the actual reality, do you?

Every incident like the one in the article and all the fools who are calling into talk radio and saying they want to disrupt the inauguration, impeach Bush and move to Canada all at the same time will only reinforce the image that moderate Democrats have lost control of their party.

My prediction is that both parties will move to the left for the 08 election. The republicans will move slightly away from the religious right and become more moderate like Arnold and Rudi and the Democrats will more even further to the left with someone like Dean.

If that happens, watch for the Democratic party to split into two with a radical left party and a centrist party. This will actually help politics in that the centrist party will pull a lot of moderate republican.

I say Lets bring back the Bull Moose party.

<font color="#a52a2a" size="1">[ November 11, 2004 07:45 AM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font>

[reason]

I understand the sentiment the desire to move to Canada. After seeing overt bigotry integrated into the Republicans campaign message - directed at people like me - I have nothing but disgust for our new president. I don't think you have any idea of the level of anger I've seen from those who feel like they've been made a target.

[Ickey]

Your kidding me right? Somebody truly believes this fight was all about dems and pubs? The I guess John Wayne Gacy REALLY WAS looking for a better substance to make house foundations out of.

From someone who has to deal with high school fights pretty regularly, I would submit this fight was more linked to the questioning of sexual preferences than who was or wasn't elected.

But of course, there is no background on the individuals involved, which makes for great news as you can spin it anyway you want to.