Last Tuesday, October 23, a group of men defaced political campaign signs for President Obama and then, physically attacked a local man, Leo Flores, who is running for office in Lubbock, Texas. Flores captured most of the action with his cell phone camera. Once the attacks came to light, Lubbock Republican Party Chair Carl Tepper dismissed it all by saying, “I have a weird suspicion that the Democrats might have damaged their own signs. It’s an outlandish story.”
Lubbock, which isn’t exactly a mecca for academic and scientific intellectuals, is already deep in Republican territory. Of course, there are a lot of places in Texas that can make that claim. It doesn’t surprise me that the local Republican Party Chairman negates the severity of the vandals’ actions. These are the same bunch of clowns who helped put George W. Bush into the governor’s mansion twice and the White House twice and have helped Rick Perry hold onto the current governorship like the papacy. Yes, it’s getting increasingly dangerous to be even a moderate Democrat here in Texas. But, free speech isn’t a privilege – it’s a right.
Chief Writing Wolf 