Editorial:

It’s easy to forget amid all the partisan bickering, but election years in the United States are a time to count our blessings.

Unlike some countries around the world that are barely holding democracy together, we have a system that works like a well-oiled machine — every voter gets to go to the polls and vote exactly how he or she wants, with no fear of retribution if the other side wins. And regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in office, we always welcome voices on both sides of any political issue.

All of this makes the recent vandalism of campaign signs for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama in Burbank and Glendale a particularly low blow. A number of residents reported to police that their yard signs had been stolen, crumpled, thrown in neighbors’ yards and even retouched — with an S glued over the B in “Obama,” spelling, you got it, “Osama.”

We live in a difficult time, when the United States is faced with a number of problems that defy ready solutions. Both Obama and Republican challenger Sen. John McCain have their own ideas for how to fix the plummeting economy, how to manage the war in Iraq and, yes, how to defeat Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Their policies may differ and fall on either side of party lines, but few voters would argue that either man is not acting with America’s best interests in mind.

The people — or, for all we know, the person — responsible for the tagging and trashing of Obama signs did the community no favors by implying that anyone who votes for the blue ticket shares the values of the world’s most infamous terrorist.

Agreeing to disagree has been one of America’s core values from the beginning, and it is precisely this freedom, including the freedom to post signs in the yard, that has kept demagogues like bin Laden from seizing power.

Debbie Munsey, a Glendale resident whose neighborhood was hit with the “Osama” signs over the weekend, had the right approach after she discovered the vandalism: She began volunteering with the Obama campaign, then went to her local Democratic club and purchased 16 more Obama signs.

“My answer to the vandals is to put two signs up,” she said.

We support residents like Munsey in their efforts to defend their candidate in the face of opposition. And we hope the vandals, whoever they are, appreciate their own freedom when they go to vote on Nov. 4.