I am on edge, but it's not because of Halloween. I almost got killed yesterday. It was politically motivated. It's as if we have arrived at the Witching Hour of the presidential campaign, and all of the anger of the party about to lose is boiling over.
Last summer my wife and I bought a 2007 Honda CR-V because it had all-wheel drive and a higher riding position. We felt it was a safe family car on the freeways, especially in winter in the Northwest, where it rains or snows just about every day. We have two children, one in first grade and the other not quite in preschool.
I was on my way to pick up our daughter yesterday, driving on I-405. It was a hazy but pleasant afternoon. Traffic was moderate but moving at the speed limit. Out of nowhere, a black Nissan Titan came up alongside my rear bumper and roared past me occupying an entire third of my lane, which I happened to be using at that moment. His passenger-side mirror would have crushed my driver-side mirror, except that his truck was nearly two feet taller than my CR-V, so his mirror actually went over mine as he sped past. As he swerved into my lane, his rear bumper nearly crushed the left front side of my CR-V. Just when I was noticing the black Doberman (I'm not making this up!) staggering loose in the Titan's bed, the Titan's driver slammed on his brakes less than ten feet in front of me. The Doberman nearly hit his muzzle on the back window of the truck cab. And of course I had to slam on my own brakes to avoid hitting this jerk. There was no car within fifty yards in front of this guy, and no reason he had to do what he did. Well, none that I thought of initially.
I have only had the Obama '08 sticker on my rear window for about a week, because although I'd obtained it during the primaries, I was nervous about driving to work with it. (My Daily Kos handle is Donkey Underpants because I have to "wear the blue" on my underwear and not on my shirtsleeves, due to working with several rabid Republicans. So I didn't make any connection between this asshole in the Titan and the current political tension...until I saw the McCain-Palin and Dino Rossi bumper stickers on the truck's rear bumper.
That's when I nearly lost it. I was so enraged, you'd think my little CR-V suddenly transformed into the Batmobile complete with automatic weapons and rocket launchers. Fortunately, his 8-cylinder then blew my 4-cylinder out of the water, and I eased off and took some deep breaths.
Be careful out there. They are angry. They don't like losing. They don't like admitting that their policies and their leaders have been massive failures. And, at least in my own case, they often drive bigger and more disgusting cars than we do.
This is the Witching Hour, the darkest time before the dawn. November 5th, the sun will rise again.