Vilified! Website - Conservative vs. Liberal: A War of Words and Spellcheckers

Date: 9/19/09

Conservative vs. Liberal: A War of Words and Spellcheckers

I have been personally inspired by the tens of thousands of people who have turned out over the course of this year - and especially during the recent Labor Day weekend - to voice their opposition to the dangerous policies being pushed by President Obama and the Democrats.

Thank you Tea Party people.

But, nothing hurts that message more than a misspelled protest sign. A picture may be worth a thousand words but a misspelled protest sign is worthless.

Quite honestly, it diminishes the message and makes us just look DUMB when the fringe media rolls video on someone holding a sign that reads as this recent one did:

"Let's keep the Tea - Dump The Polititions. [sic]"

For the love of all that is good and useful I implore you sign makers: please do not go out in public - especially in front of news cameras - with simple spelling mistakes that make conservatives look like someone gave us a high school diploma just to get us out of the building.

There should be a spell-checker for protest signs. Oh, wait - there is. It's called a dictionary!

Here's a few more real gems that have been exhibited at protests this year:

"Hitler Wrote Good Speaches [sic] Too!"

"Obama Commander and Theif [sic]"

"Don't Give Away My Daugters' [sic] Future"

"Thank You Fox News For Keeping Us Infromed [sic]"

"No Pubic [sic] Option"

On one hand you have to admit some of these are pretty funny, especially the last one. I'm not sure there should be a "pubic" option, either. On the other hand, it makes me cringe.

Of course, spelling issues on protest signs is not limited to conservatives but it serves my purposes just fine if liberals want to excel in bad grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Simply put, I would prefer they look stupider than us.

In this age of 24-hour-news channels and the magnification the Internet gives to text, photographs, and video it's not enough to have a message - you need a clear one. Misspellings detract and distract from that. First impressions do count and it would be better if conservatives didn't give opponents even more ammunition to attack our ideas.

So, let's raise the bar and not make it look like we just stumbled out of one. If you're going to spend the time to create a meaningful or clever protest sign for your next rally - check the spelling or have a friend proof-read it. You'll keep the rest of us from being portrayed as dumb-ass rednecks and children that were left behind.

Oh, and if you don't know, "[sic]" is inserted to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling has been quoted or reproduced. Of course, if we keep misspelling protest signs, I might have to start using [sad] instead.

- Corey Deitz