Last month, James wrote a post about (and had pictures of) the errors on the new Wisconsin state quarter. Through the magic of search engines, this post has become one of the most read stories on Dummocrats. And one of the most commented on.

Of course, you might think that readers are simply talking about this quarter and speculating about what it might be worth. You'd be wrong. Somehow, James' innocent post inspired people to engage in a vigorous political debate (hmmm, I'm blaming our name for all of this). The original post is buried in our archives now, so most of you have never seen it, so I thought you might enjoy a sampling of the comments:

Why is it called dummocrats, why not dumbrepublicans, there are more dumb republicans in charge now days. Look at the mess they've made, they can't even make enough good money to take care of the debt they caused. They only make more money to waste more. I wish I could make more money, not to spend more nor to be rich, but to afford to go to my doctor for my medicines. Dumb republicans don't ever have to worry about money for medicines because they line their pockets with money and then they still want more.

I'd love to hear about some of these rich people try to live on $20,000.00 a year (now that would make a real good realty show) que no? Yea, put that Thump, Hump, Frump,You're Fired guy, whatever his name is on a show and give him only twenty thou and maybe another 20 thou to his new wife and see if they can survive on that much. But they can't have access to their cards or other money. Of course, they have to work for their 20 thousand. They can't have their fancy clothes or cars, they have to have a jalopy so they have to pay to fix it or they have to be able to fix it themselves. Yup, that would be a great show. ;-)

Thump, Hump, Frump, You're Fired guy? Heh, actually that's an awesome description of Donald Trump. There's more:

This has to be the stupidest f&*%^$% site I have ever been to.

Of course, not all of the quarter fans are liberals, although they're all apparently fans of ALL CAPS and poor spelling...

people just dont understand that BUSH gave us a tax break and kept all of our small business' IN BUSINESS , and that he only gives tax breaks to companies who send the low paying jobs and only like 13 percent or around there over seas that way that company can afford to pay AMERICAN workers more money and give them better jobs .....SO outsource yourself to all you liberal idiots out there .. and open your eyes we was in a recession because of a crooked democrat now we are growing strong and safer then ever , because of bush and our TROOPS (GOD bless them all) we havent been attacked again our homeland!!!!! and John kerry and kennedy say our troops are the problem well i think their our problem thats why its Taxacheusetts!!! LIBERALS SUCK!!!!!!!!!! and our just trying to control the people of the U.S. by keeping us at low paying jobs i know their tricks and THATS WHY IM A PROUD REPUBLICAN .

The whole thread is just kind of scary. It's full of some of the worst, shrill, ignorant commentary imaginable from both ends of the political spectrum. Not surprisingly, most of this kind of political debate degenerates into yet another round of "Bush sucks!"/"No he doesn't". It's like being invaded by both the Democratic Underground and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy at the same time. We're stuck in the middle with only the delete key as a weapon.

And, in fact, it'd be easy to just ignore or delete all these crazy comments. But, like 'em or not, these commentors do represent a portion of the American electorate and, let me tell ya, it's been mighty enlightening to read what they have to say. Yikes.