The Vail Trail has a long piece on the Democrats' efforts to intimidate Republican voters in Colorado. Here are some excerpts:

The most starkly sinister anti-Bush messages are the large 4-by-8 foot torched and blackened Bush/Cheney sign that still stands near Wolcott, and the two back-to-back signs with their centers sawed out, located in Avon off the I-70 exit overlooking Wal-Mart.

Whether one sees the political mayhem going on hereabouts as an ominous attempt to suppress free speech, or as “harmless civil disobedience” to quote Vail Daily writer Matt Zalaznick, has been a hot topic in the county newspapers’ editorial pages.

But for some, the issue has become all too real.

Virginia Rose, an octogenarian who’s been a county resident for 27 years, likes to socialize with her friends at the Senior Center in Eagle where she’s been hearing some pretty disturbing talk lately.

“Somebody with a Bush bumper sticker had their car window broken out,” she says, “and now others are saying they’re afraid to have signs and stickers for Bush.”

The cars of Eagle-Vail resident Gunther Schmidt and his daughter had their Bush-Cheney bumper stickers scratched off, but he just stuck new ones right back on. Originally from Germany, Schmidt knows well the history of Hitler’s fascist movement and says the analogy fits.

“It starts kind of slow and easy with little things but can escalate into something more,” he comments. “I can see people being threatened by it, and becoming afraid that someone will do something to them. I thought we lived in a free country where you could express your opinion in a nonviolent way, without being punished for it.”

Schmidt advises standing firm and defying the attacks. “I would say to continue to show your support for whoever you are supporting – don’t give up because we can’t allow this country to go backwards.”

On the national level, the sign destruction has amped up into the trashing of Republican offices, physical attacks on Republicans, and even hails of bullets through the windows of campaign offices.

[Eagle County Bush-Cheney co-chair] Henri Stone got a powerful message that her views could be hazardous to her health when the couple returned home from a short trip to find the French doors to their bedroom shattered. Nothing was taken, indicating to the Stones that more menacing motives than larceny were at work.

“I wonder if this was a statement that we can come into your house and get you anytime,” she says. “We were only gone 24 hours, so somebody had to be watching the house.” Stone reported the break-in to the sheriff’s department, and says the incident won’t deter her from speaking out.

The article also tells the story of a local woman who spoke out against illegal immigration, but stopped after she got an email from La Raza which threatened to "come to my door and pay me a visit," and her daughter was threatened in school.

ONE MORE THING: It occurs to me that as this low-level violence becomes more and more prevalent, the Second Amendment will take on increasing importance.