Thursday, November 13, 2008

Democratic Civility and Tolerance

Weren't we told that Obama supporters were civil and tolerant and McCain supporters were violent? I'm sure that was the meme we were told before the election.

Well, Catherine Vogt wasn't greeted with tolerance at her junior high when she decided to conduct a tolerance test.

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

Vogt created two T-shirts. One said "Obama Girl" and the other said "McCain Girl."

A funny thing happened on the way to inclusion. When Vogt wore the "McCain Girl" shirt she was called "very stupid" by classmates and told by a teacher that she was "very surprised" Vogt would back McCain. She even received death threats.

When Vogt wore the "Obama Girl" shirt, she received nothing but compliments.

So much for inclusion, eh?