The Window War Rages Back and Forth: Collectivists smash GOP Window in Marion, Ohio. Rachel Madcow, where are you?

The front window of the Marion County Republican headquarters on South Main Street was broken when someone threw a brick through it. A note attached to the brick said, "Stop the right wing."

Well, well, my old hometown of Marion, Ohio sees a skirmish in the Window War.

'Stop right wing' is message to local GOP
Delivered via brick through HQ window

April 1, 2010

MARION — Two Republican party officials were shocked to hear someone had thrown a brick through a window at their headquarters downtown — with a message directed at stopping conservatism.

"Stop the right wing," was written in purple ink on a piece of notebook paper.

"The bottom was torn off of it, maybe like they made a mistake or something when they were writing it the first time," said Kenneth Stiverson, president of the Marion County Republican Club.

Employees at the law offices next door to the headquarters, at 114 S. Main St., called party members to let them know the window had been broken Tuesday.

Police were called and took the brick and note as evidence.

Stiverson said he didn't think people in Marion would do such a thing. Republican party members who were helping to clean up found the note after they found the brick.

"You hear about this stuff in the big cities," he said. "I didn't think there was anyone in Marion that would do anything like that."

He said he thought someone might have decided to throw the brick as a reflection of conflict in national politics.

"I think they're just upset with the whole Republican comments made against, not us, but made in Washington," he said.

Two Ohio congressmen who voted for President Barack Obama's health care bill say they have received threats at their offices.

A spokesman said U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus received a death threat phoned to his Washington, D.C., office and that a Cincinnati online newsletter gave the congressman's home address, urging a protest at his home.

Democrat John Boccieri, whose northeast Ohio district includes Ashland County, said he received threatening voicemail messages.

Political historians say descents into incivility happen periodically, at times of significant political change.

The difference is that now we hear about every shocking outburst again and again, on 24-hour cable news, on YouTube, on Twitter - where there were a few random threats of violence during the weekend - and on blogs too numerous to count.

"This stuff is always out there," said Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University. "It's just that now, we can't get away from it. That's what's new. With the Web's insatiable appetite for conflict, everything becomes magnified, even if it's often an expression of a fringe minority."

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert on political communication who conducted a study of incivility in the House of Representatives from the 1940s through the mid-1990s, said she found the worst incivility always occurs when there is a very close vote on a consequential matter. She also found it occurs when there's a strong constituency that feels deeply about an issue and has support on the floor.

"The point is, it's not a case of incivility constantly getting worse," said Jamieson, a professor at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "We have moments where it happens. It's not common, but it happens."

Marion County Republican Central Committee Chairman John Matthews and Stiverson said there weren't any warnings or threats they knew of.

"We're lucky there wasn't anyone sitting near there," Stiverson said. "It happened at a time of day when nobody was sitting at the desk."

Matthews said he'll look at steps to improve the safety of volunteers and party members.

"I'm a little concerned with regard to the message it sends out, especially to the young people getting involved in politics," he said. "I thought Marion was above that. So much for the free flow of ideas and ideologies."

It may cost more than $600 to fix the window, Stiverson said. Meanwhile, it's been patched with duct tape.

"We've never had anything like this happen before. In that part of town sometimes people will wiggle on the doors and try to get in, but we never had any vandalism before," Matthews said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.