I know what you're going to say. Nuts who are willing to deface the back of a perfectly good car that may have cost as much as $4000 need not wait until election season to do so. Maybe I just notice them a bit more during election season. I think the nuts might take it up a notch for those leap years, and this year is no different.
On the surface, it seems that the nuts are actually trying to persuade their readers to see the folly of their ways. I think that, in honest moments, the nuts will be ready to admit that they're not going to persuade anybody, but rather they're there for a laugh, or at most, to annoy those who disagree with them. Though most of my exposure is to zany left-wing ignorance via bumper sticker, I've seen my share of zany right-wing ignorance as well.
There are a few rules for living in Denver. 1) You're not hard core politically aware unless you drive a Suburu that's at least 7 years old. 2) You're not doing your part to raise awareness unless you tattoo the back of the thing with bumper stickers designed to annoy the Right. If you're using said medium to annoy the Left, you're more likely from the suburbs.
The Wife and I are not yet in compliance with the above regulations as we choose only to use our car to market (with no compensation, of course) body boarding products from Southern California that no one here will recognize or ski resorts we've frequented.
I found an interesting article on some of the results of said annoyance. If you look collectively at the tone of the bumper sticker messages, there's definitely an underlying feeling of bitterness that the opposing viewpoint dare coexist within our great democracy. According to some folks at Colorado State, while aggressive driving is the result of 2/3 of all auto accidents, drivers with politically charged bumper stickers are significantly more likely to be the causers of those accidents. Interesting, huh?
If I may again put on my glasses, bow tie, and leather-elbowed tweed blazer for a minute, I suspect that bumper stickers are the modern incarnation of America's tradition of pamphleting. Before the days of modern media, if you wanted to get your political viewpoint across, you'd make a pamphlet. It was occassionally brilliant political discourse with authors among the best and brightest of our country's Founding. But more often than not, it was a zealot arguing often under the guise of religious moral right (as in good, not right-wing per se) who penned these little gems. They'd be paid for by political parties, political machines, and even churches, and people couldn't get enough of them.
Other modern incarnations of the pamphlet include ever-so-persuasive-for-their-clarity television and radio commercials paid for by political action committees, talk radio, and my all-time favorite: the email forward that you send to people who already agree with you.
On the election generally, I was sick of this election about 10 months ago when I entertained myself on a drive from St. Louis to Denver by following the Iowa caucuses. There was little else I could follow on the way across Kansas. That was January after visiting the In-Laws for the holidays. Keep in mind that our taxes are paying the salaries and benefits for our good friends in our respective capitols to run for reelection this year instead of actually doing their jobs. It's getting to the point where I'd just rather it end.
Posts
1 comment:
Hilarious! Interesting to think about the forefathers of bumper stickers. As you point out, they were probably pamphlets. Man, I shutter to think of the caustic wit that would have been made manifest had Tocqueville or Paine left us with a few bumper stickers.
Post a Comment