Is this an indication of just how ugly politics will be this election year?

Ken Aden Arkansas democrat running for Congress

Courtesy of the Ken Aden for Congress website:

On the heels of a weekend of positive news coverage for the campaign of Democratic Congressional candidate Ken Aden, Aden’s campaign manager returned home to find his family pet slaughtered, with the word “liberal” painted on the animal’s corpse. 

The Russellville Police Department is investigating, and a report will be made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday morning. 

Jacob Burris, who has served as Aden’s campaign manager since late October, arrived home with his family Sunday evening, and his four children discovered the gruesome scene as they exited the family vehicle to enter their home. 

The family pet, an adult, mixed-breed Siamese cat, had one side of its head bashed in to the point the cat’s eyeball was barely hanging from its socket. The perpetrators scrawled “liberal” across the cat’s body and left it on the doorstep of Burris’ house. 

“To kill a child’s pet is just unconscionable,” Aden said Monday morning. “As a former combat soldier, I’ve seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. Whoever did this is definitely part of the worst of humanity,” he said. 

“It is one thing to engage in civil political discourse, and for Republicans and Democrats to disagree with each other, which is an expected part of the political process. Taking it to this level is beyond unacceptable,” Aden said.

This is the outcome when certain cable news stations, and right wing radio shock jocks, vilify those on the other side the of the political aisle to such a degree that they no longer seem human. To these people "liberals" are in the same category as "commies," or "terrorists," or any other epithet you an imagine which conjures up visions of anti-Americanism.

I guess it could be worse, at least nobody was shot.

Oh wait....

(If you would like to send a message to the assholes who thought that murder of a family pet would stop this brave veteran's campaign, you can do so by contributing here.)