Hire an armed guard, double-bolt the door, and keep the kids away from the windows. Your opponent will resort to violence if there is the possibility of losing the battle. For them, everything is at stake, and all that talk of brotherhood and human rights is a smokescreen:

Offices that house President Bush's re-election campaign in Spokane were broken into and vandalized last night, the latest in a string of crimes at Republican offices across the country.

Workers arriving this morning found a hole smashed through the wall from an adjacent, vacant office. Bush campaign officials say a small amount of petty cash is missing and a computer and television had been moved and left near the hole...

In Bellevue last week, computers that stored the Republican get-out-the-vote database were stolen in a burglary at the Republican headquarters there. Bush campaign officials believe the break-ins are part of a broader attack on the president's re-election offices around the country, including a burglary in Canton, Ohio, last night, gun shots fired in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee and union protestors storming offices in three Florida cities and Minneapolis.

"What did you do in the civil war, Daddy?"

"Why, I helped start it! Let's see it was during the final month of the campaign..."

UPDATE: Guess we've got our own goons after all. Or are they just tit-for-tat pranksters like mascot thieves from back in the day? Is it war, or is it capture the flag?