Political Bumper Stickers--Offensive or Not???

This is a subject I've wanted to discuss in here for some time, now, but hadn't done so until I saw a bumper sticker the other day that really offended me.

The sticker was worn, and was most probably left over from the '04 election.

It read:

Bush/Satan '04


I found it very offensive, rude, and just downright mean spirited.

Now--I know that the person with this sticker on their car wouldn't be taken seriously by most people. However--there are TONS of the following bumper stickers all over the place:

[image=http://www.orderofsuccession.com/images/people/348075no-george-w-bush-anti-political-bumper-sticker-500.gif]

and

the M-the Moron sticker.

These stickers are on cars of people that look intellegent.

Where did the civility go?

I don't recall seeing stickers with the word Kerry with a circle around it and a dash through it.

I don't recall seeing a sticker saying Kerry/Satan '04.

Nor do I expect to see a sticker that says Hillary/Satan '08 on a Republican/conservative's car.

So what's the deal here? Why must some people express their views in such an offensive, combative way?

To be fair, I do remember a bumper sticker from the '90's that said, "Thou Shalt Not Lie", which was an obvious reference to Bill Clinton. But these stickers today(mostly on Democrate's/Liberal's cars) seem much more "IN YOUR FACE!"

Why is this?

 

I've seen more than my fair share of bumper stickers that 'offend' my sensibilites - "Gun Control is using both hands", "In case of Rapture, care will be abandoned" and a plethura of others. I just IGNORE them and move on...

 

I'd agree right away that there seems to be an erosion of civility from both political parties. That's a larger issue though.

However, I usually find bumper stickers to quite humorous if they indicate more of a dry sense of humor, or are witty. I would never put one of any kind on my car, but to each his own.

There were plenty of anti-Kerry stickers to be found last election though:

Example 1-"I VOTED FOR THIS BUMPER STICKER BEFORE I VOTED AGAINST IT"

Example 2-"FLUSH THE JOHN IN 04"

Example 3- "Kerry got his money the old fashioned way... He married it!"

Example 4- "KERRY-BINLADEN '04"

Some of course, are more witty than others....

 

I'm always amused by them, because I wish I could talk to some of the people who have them.

"You can't be Catholic and be pro-choice."

I always want to ask "Can you be Catholic and be pro-death penalty? How about pro-Iraq War?"

It's stupid on both sides of the political aisle.




Whoopi Goldberg, For The Win!

 

I actually have and wear a button with the crossed out W, but that's because I simply disagree with nearly everything the man has done since coming to power. The only exceptions are when he signed the Do Not Call list into law and the invasion of Afghanistan. In regards to everything else, I think he's absolutely horrible for the nation, and one of the worst hypocrites ever to sit in the Oval Office. I don't think that the line-through it is mean-spirited, in light of his own emphasis on the "W" as being distinctive of him. I have other buttons which certainly are mean-spirited, but I don't wear them, precisely because they detract from the civility of public discourse. The "anti-W" button is actually quite subtle, unless you know what it stands for.

 

I think it's just an example of the erosion of our country's civility. I don't remember the exact numbers, but as for the war in Iraq that Bush is spending SO much national money on...

Clinton spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more in... that place he sent our troops (I wasn't political back then...) than Bush has used in Iraq and Clinton wasn't freeing or liberating anyone. Just settling a MINOR conflict with another leader that barely any US citizens Knew about. People just didn't care as much because Clinton was for some reason more popular. I, personally think that the majority of the criticism that Bush gets comes from the fact that he publically declares his faith and his trust in God and people just don't like that. Now, I know some Christians don't like him either, but I know a TON of people who LOVED Bush... until he stated his trust in God... go figure...

 

Clinton spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more in... that place he sent our troops (I wasn't political back then...) than Bush has used in Iraq and Clinton wasn't freeing or liberating anyone. Just settling a MINOR conflict with another leader that barely any US citizens Knew about.

PPOR

 

If this isn't a clear example of parrot speak than I don't know what is. Look, please go back and read about the topic you're now making silly assertions about and then get back with us, I'd like to think we demand more from users than this.

But as far as the original topic goes, I think bumper stickers are cool...well...not visually, but cool that people aren't afraid to have a voice. Even if it's only in the relative safety of a couple ton enclosure I think it's good for people to have a voice, even in the form of a bumper sticker, that's kind of what freedom is all about.

I don't know, particularly in light of what's going on in the Middle East I've just really been appreciating all the simple freedoms we're allowed to have.

 

I second that PPOR. Have you got a source, Inferno?

And why is it that people have such a hard time defending Bush without using the word "Clinton"?

As for the bumper stickers: Simply put, you don't have a right not to be offended, and that goes both ways.

 

Here's one I'd love to give to every JC'er. Including myself, "Thou shalt not shoot thy mouth off." Yeah, any way...why is this uncivilized? It's a way of voicing displeasure over the current administration or whoever was running against it. If it offends you that badly...hmm...don't go outside. In fact, if a little piece of paper on the back of someone's car offends you or anyone else...maybe going outside, watching tv, reading the newspaper, getting online, or any other such activity is not for you.

 

Political bumperstickers are the most retarded bumper stickers out there. Instead of politics, everybody should get StrongBad and Home Star Runner bumper stickers. That way, we all become nerds!



Actually, most of the anti-Bush stickers I've seen are stupid. The worst one is "W's not my president. I didn't vote for him."

Well, news to you idiots out there with that bumper sticker in the US, SHRUB IS YOUR PRESIDENT!!!! Get over it, move on with your pointless, yuppie life and go buy some more GAP clothing and watch your crappy Uwe Boll movies...

 

Personally I want to see more of these as opposed to crummy bumper stickers.

[image=http://valiante.plugnpay.com/scstore/graphics/Evolve%20PLarge.jpg]

 

I guess I don't follow the logic here. Helping to stabilize a region that collapsed into a failed state and as facing rampant, immediate, ethnic cleansing is somehow less justified than destablizing a region in the process of going after a leader for the use of chemical weapons in a US-supported war in Iran over a decade ago--weapons that, in fact, he no longer had?

Come on now.

 

I'd like to, too, but it all depends on who's making the silly assertions.


On the topic, my problem is not with bumper stickers, it's with bumper-sticker ideas, glib cliches that could be expressed on a bumper sticker or on a napkin, ideas that ultimately don't bear much scrutiny.

Take, for instance, the idea mentioned earlier in this thread that someone is a hypocrite for opposing abortion but supporting the death penalty. A statement like that presumes a moral equivalence between innocent life and the life of, say, someone who murdered three or four people.

The two may be equivalent, but such a thing should proven or at least argued, not presumed.

 

I have no use for Kool-Aid on the right or the left.

Individuals who feel Bush is teh wurst prez evah!1!11! are in deep in the Kool-Aid pitcher. There have been far worse Presidents in US history as any informed individual would know.

Individuals who think Bush is teh bestest President are also drinking the Kool-Aid. He's made many mistakes.

I wouldn't personally put a sticker on my vehicle or wear a button on my person that demonstrates that I'm a raging ideologue incapable of independent thought.

EDIT:

As a side note, I don't see anything wrong with putting campaign stickers on vehicles or those posters stakes on lawns; I'm referring to the vitriolic variety or the overly gushing variety. Support of troops with yellow ribbons are a different matter as well.

 

todays polotics are mostly a smear campiagn made to make the one lieing contender look better than the other, if you or anyone else is offended by this then that's good for you or them because in today's society of multi-national,ethnic groups,religous groups, cults,or what ever, it seems that you can't do anything that won't offend some one, that's pretty much a fact. but back on topic today's polotics are soly smear campaings disigned around the avrege person who does'nt care about the issues but only sees whats on the guys bumber sticker in fornt of him and says " well i like his slogan and how he smears the other guy" the problem is people don't care or are'nt informed, if people were then we would have alot more independents.

 

I just find it funny that people still have Kerry/Edwards stickers on their cars. I wonder if people just can't figure out how to take them off or if they somehow think it will make any real difference.

And I will find the same thing funny in 2008/9 when people still have Bush stickers.

All in all, it just shows how shortsighted people are.

 

Im guessing because Democrats today seem to have no balls, so they are hostile in the bumper sticker market. The thing I was wondering, were you offended when Karl Rove smeared other candidates? Going after them for actually serving in wars? What I find sad and funny, is that you are an american hero for serving your country, but if you go up against him in a campaign, you are a baby killer. Its a sad country we live in.

I personally have no problem with the bmper stickers, and no offense to you, but why is it that alot of people get worked up over small things, but then when bigger things happen, they ignore them and try to justify them?

 

Does this extend to t-shirts?


[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/rect-checap-green.jpg]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/square-large-muerto.jpg]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/shirtsquare-selectback.jpg]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/square-large-defeat.gif]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/square-large-lousy.jpg]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/square-large-atf.gif]
[image=http://thoseshirts.com/images/square-large-redefeat.gif]

 

The other day, I saw a 2005 BMW with a "Clinton/Gore 92" sticker on it. I've seen new cars with Bush/Quayle stickers, too.

Kimball Kinnison

 

What was is that George Carlin said..."People should definitely not wear a Che Guevara t-shirt with their designer jeans unless they're trying to be ironic."

 

Hmmm, My all time favorites:


There's a village in Texas that's missing it's idiot

Liberty and Justice for All*
*Restictions apply, See Patriot Act

The War is over! Halliburton Won!

No Corperation Left Behind!

 

Walk around a college campus sometime. You'll see a handful of those people everday. They're just trying to be trendy, and right now it seems that a Che Guevara shirt is in fashion even though quite a few of those people wearing them don't know what Guevara stood for.

 

Exactly, it seems the height of stupidity to do that.