Speaking about the recent spate of food-throwing violence on the left, conservative blogger ShrinkWrapped suggests a motive:

When your enemies are evil, dangerous fascists who are dedicated to destroying your country, your civil rights, and enslaving and/or killing various innocents, it becomes incumbent on right minded people to act to prevent further horrors...

Here's what I find amusing about this: While it's a bit over the top, I could equally see my opponents in the same terms -- yet I haven't the faintest trace of an impluse to throw food at them, much less engage in even more serious forms of violence.

So, what's the difference?

First, allow me to indict myself:

"When your enemies are evil..." -- Well, since I think human beings are naturally inclined towards evil, I do consider my political opponents evil. Of course, I also see many of my own actions as being prone towards evil too, so it's not a quality they have a monopoly on.

"... dangerous fascists..." -- Contrary to the popular view I was taught as a child, I have come to understand the leftist bent of both the Nazis and Mussolini -- so I consider facism very much a leftist phenomenon. (It certainly wasn't an outgrowth of the desire for limited government!) Many impluses I see coming out of the left (such their frequent inclination to silence, not debate, opponents) strike me as totalitarian. So yes, I see many on the left as having facist or totalitarian impulses.

"... dedicated to destroying your country, your civil rights..." -- When the left says they're trying to "preserve" the constitution, it strikes me as an obvious lie, since a major aspect of contemporary leftism has been the push to remove the Constitution we have, through judicial activism. You cannot be said to honor the 150+ years of tradition which built this country while simultaneously attempting to replace it's core guiding document with a completely different one of your own creation.

"... enslaving and/or killing various innocents..." -- Certainly, the Democratic party was on the wrong side of the slavery and civil rights issue, even well into the 1960's. And the vast majority conservatives do indeed view abortion as "killing various innocents."

So if all this can be said of a conservative view of liberals, it hardly explains the difference in behavior. The body of conservatives openly reject political violence against leftists, and decry (for example) violence against abortion clinics.

So, again, what's the difference?

I can't speak for others, but as one of those nasty "evangelicals", I can only say my own model includes two things which my enemies apparently don't consider:

[While being crucified,] Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:12)

Conservative Christians believe their enemy is "evil" itself -- and that human beings, including our enemies, are but pawns in the battle. If we look to Jesus as a model for behavior, we will see that he -- while not having any illusions about the wicked, fallen nature of his enemies -- asked God to forgive them, since they did not understand the magnitude of what they were doing.

Our "enemies" are evil, and they know it -- at least at some deep unadmitted level. But they (and we also, typically) do not understand the depth and impact of our depravity. We are not typically trying to do something awful, the awful bits are simply the byproduct of our natural (evil) desire to preserve our image of self-righteousness (pride).

Second, we believe and hopefully recognize that God loves our enemies. That doesn't make what they do good -- but it does mean that we need to treat them gently, in hope someday of salvaging or redeeming the person.

Third, there's this idea that "God is in control." So, if we approach it like Jesus going to the cross, we don't engage in a desparate struggle to control events and people by our own power.

We do not do this perfectly. Some days, we don't do it at all. But it is a goal nonetheless, and this difference, I believe, is why the pie-throwing is coming from one side, not both.