When Obama was first elected, the local GOTV group in my Philly neighborhood crossed a few lines of intrusiveness in gathering information on the political views at each address. When I asked a canvasser to leave me alone, she responded that they would, only after I assured them of who I was going to vote for, and anything about the neighbors. Fortunately, they never repeated that level of obnoxiousness again.
After Obama won, I was relieved and excited but had one fear. Inevitably, the Republicans would obstruct anything Obama would say and do, no matter how reasonable and necessary, and would build up a massive whining machine. My fear was that the Democrats would respond by converting that GOTV apparatus into a repressive force akin to Cuban block committees in order to squelch Republican opposition. That never happened. Instead, the Democrats responded meekly.
Unfortunately, the Republicans have taken that whining machine and, with the help of Breitbart, are turning it into exactly the kind of totalitarian harassment machine that the Democrats avoided. Now, they are keeping track of professors’ political views and targeting them. Now, they are targeting Republicans who balk at Trump.